AP Probe Finds Drugs in Drinking Water
Mar 10 2008
By JEFF DONN, MARTHA MENDOZA and JUSTIN PRITCHARD
Associated Press Writers

A vast array of pharmaceuticals—including antibiotics, anti- convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones—have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows.

To be sure, the concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in quantities of parts per billion or trillion, far below the levels of a medical dose. Also, utilities insist their water is safe.
But the presence of so many prescription drugs—and over-the-counter medicines like acetaminophen and ibuprofen—in so much of our drinking water is heightening worries among scientists of long-term consequences to human health. the rest image