Probe Finds Drugs in Drinking Water - How Do Pharmaceutical Drugs Get in Drinking Water?
How do pharmaceutical drugs get in drinking water? That's has been a common question since headlines like "AP Probe Finds Drugs in Drinking Water" appeared. In actuality there are many sources of the contamination. First, there are human beings. You might think that when you take a medication, all of it is absorbed by the body. That is not the case. A great deal of the medications pass through the body without being metabolized and are excreted, along with other waste products. In order to fully answer the question of how do pharmaceutical drugs get in drinking water, you have to understand that at least some of the waters flowing out of your taps are "recycled" wastewaters. Wastewater treatment facilities need to be state of the art in order to remove all of the traces of medications and other synthetic and organic chemicals that are present in raw sewage. Since the AP probe finds drugs in drinking water samples taken from around the country, obv