How an Aging Population and our Growing Addiction to Pharmaceuticals May Be Poisoning our Rivers
When residents of Heritage Village and two other nearby retirement communities flush their toilets, wastewater laced with traces of prescription drugs rushes through a series of pipes into the Heritage Village treatment plant...
The effect of those drugs on the environment, and possibly on those who drink water pumped from those streams, is only beginning to be understood...
In 2002, the USGS published the results of its first-ever reconnaissance of man-made contaminants...the agency found traces of 82 different organic contaminants -- fertilizers and flame retardants as well as pharmaceuticals -- in surface waters across the nation. [Onearth, Fall 2006]
