Drugs disposed of in toilets. Do they get into our drinking water?

Question

So many people dispose of unwanted drugs this way, plus what passes through their bodies. I understand all water goes to the purification plants only to be re-cycled back into our homes. How do we know if we are being affected? What checks are done? This is one of the reasons I will only drink bottled water.

Answer 1

Some drugs do apparently enter the water supply. There has certainly been much discussion about oestrogen, though this enters from other sources. It is best to take out of date and unwanted medications to the pharmacy for disposal.

Answer 2

Most bottled water is tap water. You must have missed the recent announcement that one of the big companies (I forgot which one) is now going to tell the truth and state on the label that the source is a tap no different than the one in your kitchen.

As for your actual question, the purification process is in place for the purposes of protecting us from anything and everything that might be in the water, but it's never 100% contaminant free. There are "acceptable levels" of certain things, set by government guidelines. But don't waste your money on bottled water when most of it is just the same as any other water.

Answer 3

Most people will say to NOT flush it down the toilet because the meds could get into the public sewer and eventually drinking water. In Pennsylvania the state police conduct a med drop off event a few times a year where you can take your old prescriptions to your local barracks and they will dispose of them properly. You could try contacting your local police agency and asking them if the ever do anything like that. Also, some pharmacies will dispose of the meds as well.

Answer 4

not much would come through to our drinking water because when the water is recycled it goes through a series of processes, the water would also be tested every so often to check for any "dangers" or if something is going in which shouldn't this would be done by a computer and manually, but is some gets through the processes there would be so little of it it would be highly diluted so the ratio of drug to water would be so small it would be hardly traceable therefore it is not worth thinking about,so there is no need to worry about it,

i would also like to point out even this untraceable amount, because of the water cycle it, it may also be in the bottled drinking water...

Answer 5

Seriously...most bottled water comes from taps nowadays...
do some research. I would seriously doubt that the drugs could get to you via the drinking water since it does go through filtering plants which are federally inspected and mandated. Otherwise, you'd be drinking urine and feces and whatever else goes into the toilet. For that matter, why bother taking a shower? That's the same water, right? Come on, don't be silly...sewage is not recycled anyway...drinking water is filtered from lakes, resevoirs, etc. Put a filter on your tap if you're really that worried.

Answer 6

A lot of bottled water comes from the same system as your tap water. If you want cleaner water, get a water purifier. It's cheaper and more environmentally friendly to do that than to throw away all those plastic bottles.

As for drugs being flushed down the toilet, they do say it's actually better to throw them away in the garbage, if not to protect the water we drink, then to protect the water that other animals drink before it's been purified.

Answer 7

The water is checked in laboratories regularly for it's purity.
Recent scientific tests have shown that most tap drinking water has far less impurities than bottled. To make sure you can always filter your water as we do. You can be sure then it is 100% pure and far safer to drink than bottled water from various manufacturers who sometimes use tap water!

Answer 8

Much like when you check the chemical levels in your pool the water at the plant get a sample check to see whats in the water.

Answer 9

Water goes through a series of decontamination first before it goes back to the tap. You have ion resins, ultra fine pore filters, chlorination... I think the drugs people flush down the toilet get filtered out through ion resins. Either that or activated charcoal adsorption.

Answer 10

I have heard of doctors stating that drugs get back into drinking water in some form-its a fact.