What's in the water out there? Yeah, what the hell IS in the water?

Water water everywhere nor.... any drop to drink

Did you read the article ? The essential point was that, while raw water samples contained up to 16 detectable pharmaceutical drugs - all at very low concentrations; treated (i.e. potable) water samples contained only 1 to 3 and at extremelyfar lower concentrations - ranging from parts per trillion to parts per billion.

While no human health risk assessment was attempted in the article, it is extremely likely that there would be no measurable effects from such doses on the general population.

Two activities are required to assess such information .... reading and thinking.

Even so, tap water is atrocious, loads of chlorine to start with...

And then there is the poor Countries, think of Bali, anyone drinks that water ends up sick.

Actually, my pipes were so blocked the water I drank in our new house made me sick, I'm drinking filtered water now, full stop from the fridge... Safer.

Just like sperm One litter bugger can get you, so could one little minute chemical, in my opinion.

low dose non affective doses of nicotenoid plant fumigants is thought to be involved in CCD (colony collapse disroder) of bees and extremely low doses of surfactants is also thought to bbe associated with the increase of estrogen mimic in organisms(including humans).
The USGS will publish the raw data and then someone else will draw conclusion about exposures to very low doses of chemicals.
Its been known for years that very low dose esposures to such heavy metals as lead oxide or mercuric oxide in the atmosphere or in water can lead to cerebral disorders.



Id add a third, following reading ---"following the data track and the inferences of the analyses"

I am not, at least I don't think I am, Chicken Little. I've lived in places where the water coming out of the tap was the color of the iced tea is was going to be used to make. (The folks at the nearby convalescent homes were not allowed to drink the water because of it's high salt content.)
It just bothers me a bit it these days of high sensitivity to bee stings, allergies to peanuts, milk protein and wheat gluten, incidence of ADD that seems to have arrived recently in our history to see chemicals in the REFINED water which don't belong in any parts per trillion.

It could be that we just eat too much sugar.

But still... .
Joe(I wonder)Nation

I wouldnt dismiss it at all until sufficient data shows that its ok not to be concerned.

An Activated Charcoal filter (iike the kind culligan makes for water taps) is what Id consider for "poishing" your water.
MAny cities have really good water quality but they do a Dechlorination step before thw water gets sent out in the pipes. I recled that NYC water wasnt among them. You could tatse chlorine in the water(which actually makes other contaminants that are low dose toxicants)

You're not suggesting that Gob1 is up to his normal tricks of planting misleading information, are you, Farmer?

In Southampton the health authority has been trying to flouridate the water for years. There is real opposition to this, and it keeps filling the pages of the local paper. I'm against it, my kids have cavity free teeth because they brush their teeth properly.

Tell him if he doesn't to stop bothering you you'll go to water.

Fluoridated water was seen in the USA as the first step towards Communism, State Control and the arrival of several worse things.... It turned out to be none of those things.
That's because it was not a lucky guess.

Joe(I guess)Nation

It always makes me think of Dr. Strangelove. Having said that, I'd rather not have anything added to my water supply. My kid's teeth are fine, so they don't need flouridisation.

As far as politics are concerned, I'm a socialist.

I'm not in the mood <it's the early part of the day, snowing lightly off and on, my coffee is good and warm> to go researching, but from anecdotal experience within my family, fluoride treatment at the dentist's office stopped the parades of cavities cold. There had been no fluoridated water when we were kids. Given many families have less than good eating and tooth brushing habits, I think fluoride in the water has saved many from completely awful teeth.

I see your view re not adding stuff to potable water, but think it is on the idealistic side re fluoride.

My teeth are pretty bad, I'm a child of the sixties, we'd not long come off rationing and sugary drinks were everywhere. Most people of my generation have lousy teeth. My kids are different though. I don't see why they should have to drink flouridised water just because other parents don't take their kid's dental hygene seriously.

I'm in a bit of a weird mood at the moment. It's ten to four in the afternoon, and I'm already a bit drunk. I've just got back from my mother in law's funeral. She had two brothers that I'd never even heard of, and I just met one of them.

It's true that some toothpastes here have fluoride in them. Hmmm.

Ok, now, just don't put any fluoride in your liqueur..

Kind of amazing re the brothers. Not my business, but did your kids go to the funeral too?

Sorry for your family's loss, Izzy.

Joe(Ain't families the strangest organizations on Earth?)Nation

The increases of ADD and of autism certainly make it seem a possibility. A way to be surer of this would be to do a scientific study throughout the world to learn if people in areas without all these chemicals were doing better or worse or on equal ground in these and other health areas. It will be a difficult test; yet, I'm sure that you, Joe (Can get the job done) Nation, are up to it. Be sure to check as well, on the level of consumption of wheat, dairy and peanut products by the prospective parents, as their DNA may have been altered, which would explain why more children are being born with these allergies and other ailments already in place. The bee sting thing may be the chemicals sprayed on plants getting into the bee and thereby harming more people. See? It's not the bee stings, its the remnants of DDT (and other chemicals).


Regarding sugar, I think the U.S. needs to lift its ban on the delicious sodium cyclamate (I really miss that stuff).


As to water, there are times when I drink the tap water and it can make me feel queasy. To really scare yourself, run the water extra cold, then notice the strange residue on your hands. Now think about that stuff inside your body.

Thanks Jo, she was an in-law and we weren't particularly close, but it's still quite depressing.

It's not just here.



That's the rate of anaphylaxis reported in the UK of late.

Mass hysteria?

Joe(I used to get hysterical at Mass)Nation

What kinds of toothpaste did your kids use. Most all toothpastes have Stannous Flouride in em and that helps oral hygiene including being a dentifrice that reverses and cures such stuff as Gingivitis. Having flouridated water is kinda stupid since the costs are so damn high and the water pipes leak anyway. Buting Colgate or Crest does the same thing (As long as we brush regulkary)