Comments on: Flushing your body and flushing the toilet – not so innocent anymore http://www.scienceline.org/2008/03/13/flushing-your-body-and-flushing-the-toilet-%e2%80%93-not-so-innocent-anymore/ The Shortest Distance Between You and Science Wed, 17 Mar 2010 21:44:42 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Alan Dove http://www.scienceline.org/2008/03/13/flushing-your-body-and-flushing-the-toilet-%e2%80%93-not-so-innocent-anymore/comment-page-1/#comment-1497 Alan Dove Thu, 13 Mar 2008 18:37:39 +0000 http://scienceline.org/2008/03/13/flushing-your-body-and-flushing-the-toilet-%e2%80%93-not-so-innocent-anymore/#comment-1497 As a reporter who covered this story two years ago, <em>way</em> ahead of the AP, I suggest bagging and landfilling your old drugs rather than flushing them. Also, as you point out, reducing our overall use of prescription drugs would be a good plan. But let's not let all the hype about prescription drugs in the water obscure the nonprescription drugs that are there. According to the sources I interviewed in 2006, ibuprofen and acetominophen (Motrin and Tylenol) are among the most common pollutants in treated sewage, and they don't seem to break down. Meanwhile, researchers in Italy actually used cocaine levels in the Po River to back-calculate illicit drug use in a nearby city. And at least one maverick wants to filter drugs out of the waste stream and recycle them back into patients - maybe a bit yucky, but definitely feasible. As a reporter who covered this story two years ago, way ahead of the AP, I suggest bagging and landfilling your old drugs rather than flushing them. Also, as you point out, reducing our overall use of prescription drugs would be a good plan.

But let’s not let all the hype about prescription drugs in the water obscure the nonprescription drugs that are there. According to the sources I interviewed in 2006, ibuprofen and acetominophen (Motrin and Tylenol) are among the most common pollutants in treated sewage, and they don’t seem to break down. Meanwhile, researchers in Italy actually used cocaine levels in the Po River to back-calculate illicit drug use in a nearby city. And at least one maverick wants to filter drugs out of the waste stream and recycle them back into patients – maybe a bit yucky, but definitely feasible.

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