DRINK WATER? YOU MAY BE ON 56 MEDICATIONS YOU DON'T KNOW ABOUT

In March the Associated Press released results of an investigation into the contents of municipal drinking water in 24 major cities. The results were rather concerning: in all areas studied, municipal tap water was found to have trace amounts of pharmaceutical medications and their metabolites. These were present in extremely low amounts, but at present we just don't know if small amounts of these drugs can have health consequences for humans. Animal studies are not reassuring: many aquatic animals, such as fish and amphibians, have demonstrated severe physical and reproductive abnormalities in response to pharmaceutical concentrations even LOWER than what's in our own drinking water. In Philadelphia municipal tap water, small amounts of 56 pharmaceutical drugs were found! Even if the amounts of each drug are incredibly small, we just don't know what this veritable stew of drugs might do when present in large combinations. So far, it doesn't look like much, but scientists acknowledge that we might not have reached the tipping point yet, which could occur as the number of drugs and drug metabolites in our water increases (as it is likely to do).
As you may know, bottled water is not going to be the solution. First, many commercial bottled water manufacturers ADMIT they are just selling bottled tap water. Second, the EPA is starting to get concerned about hormone analogs that leach into water from polycarbonate, the clear plastic that is used in the vast majority of beverage bottles. Bottled water, in fact, may be MORE hazardous to your health than your city's tap water.
So what to do? There are no great answers yet, until we find better ways to dispose of medications and improve wastewater processing- but there is a good compromise. I recommend drinking municipal tap water, but filtered through a Brita filter into a pitcher. The filter/pitcher combo is sold at Target and innumerable other home and garden stores, and the filter in these things contains activated charcoal. Activated charcoal not only can bind heavy metals and industrial contaminants, but it does an impressive job soaking up pharmaceutical drugs. Incidentally, activated charcoal is what we'll pump into your stomach if you come into the Emergency Room with a drug overdose. It works to neutralize huge quantities of drugs in human stomachs, and it can work to soak up most, if not all, the drugs in your drinking water.
SUMMARY:
1. use your tap water to drink.
2. filter it through a Brita filter first.
3. to make it portable, put it in a METAL OR GLASS reusable drinking bottle to take with you.
4. DON'T FORGET to change the filter in your Brita pitcher! Most people I know actually DON'T do this enough. I recommend every 3 months.
5. if you have a medication to throw away, DON'T flush it down the toilet. Seal it in a plastic bag and put it in the trash. It's less likely to get into the water supply this way.