Gadling

Recently, an AP news story came out about the traces of pharmaceuticals, including sex hormones and antibiotics, found in 41 million people's drinking water in the U.S. The traces are teeny tiny and probably aren't much to worry about. It's not that people are dumping medicine directly into the water in large amounts, but a body absorbs only so much. What isn't absorbed goes into the toilet and on out into the water supply. That's the watered down version of what occurs. All those hormones and antibiotics animals are given are also part of the mixture.

The pharmaceuticals could become more of a concern because there aren't regulations about how water is treated in order to get rid of the traces of such ingredients. It seems to me that if people are taking more and more medicine for whatever ails them so wouldn't that have an increase? On the other hand, if what people are taking more of is anti-anxiety medication, maybe we'll all be a little more relaxed and problems like road rage with go down. If it's sleeping pills though, accidents could go up. (I'm just musing here. Don't take me seriously.)

New York City is one of the places where the traces have been found. Leave it to David Letterman to come up with a funny combination of two New York stories. Last night, pairing Eliot Spitzer's recent woes which have caused him to resign as governor of New York with New York City water quality, Letterman talked about what has showed up in the water and showed a picture of Elliot Spitzer with an announcer's voice over that said, in reference to the water, "The fuel that keeps the Spitzer Spitzin." Letterman was pretty pleased with himself.

Filed under: Food and Drink, Stories, United States, News, Travel Health