How clean is your water?

doi:10.1136/bmj.a237

Published 2 July 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a237
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a237

Feature

Environmental health

How clean is your water?

Geoff Watts, freelance journalist

¹ London

geoff@scileg.freeserve.co.uk

Many of the drugs we take end up in the water system. GeoffWatts investigates the implications

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Every year in the United Kingdom we spend upwards of £10bn( ${euro}$ 13bn; $20bn) on medicines. And where do they go? Down the drain,literally. Out of the bladder, through the sewage system, andinto the rivers. Some drugs—unwanted or out of date—bypassthe bladder and are flushed straight down the toilet. Eitherway, does it matter? To fish and other organisms living in thethin chemical soup that emerges from the sewage treatment plantsit does; there is evidence of harm to aquatic ecosystems, particularlyfrom endocrine disrupting chemicals such as ethinylestradiol,which is used in many oral contraceptives. For humans, protectedby the purification technology that river water goes throughbefore it re-emerges from the kitchen tap, the answer mightseem to be no. But how well founded is this assumption?

In March this year the US news agency Associated Press announcedthe results of an investigation into . . . [Full text of this article]

Analysing the problem

Potential for harm

Cleaning up

CiteULike

Complore

Connotea

Del.icio.us Add to Digg

Digg

Technorati What's this?

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

How clean is clean?: Viera Scheibner
bmj.com, 3 Jul 2008 [Full text]
Illicit drugs also pollute our waters: Pasquale Urbano
bmj.com, 3 Jul 2008 [Full text]
What is civilization?: Hugh Mann
bmj.com, 4 Jul 2008 [Full text]
Discarded water filters: Phillip J. Colquitt
bmj.com, 6 Jul 2008 [Full text]
Drugs in the water supply and male infertility: Gillian R. Cooper
bmj.com, 16 Jul 2008 [Full text]