Re: No Wonder We Feel So Good

1

If you chase your water with alcohol, that helps, right?


Posted by: Will | Link to this comment | 03-10-08 9:31 AM
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Need more soma.


Posted by: Gonerill | Link to this comment | 03-10-08 9:32 AM
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3

The final triumph of homeopathy.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 03-10-08 9:33 AM
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That's why we're all getting sick! The homeopathic drugs are less dilute than they used to be!

But seriously, you know, guys, this is the cause of all the breast and prostate cancer. The hormones, anyway.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 03-10-08 9:36 AM
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Looks like grandma can stop fretting over which Medicare prescription drug plan to choose. Good ol' tap water is all the cure she needs.


Posted by: My Alter Ego | Link to this comment | 03-10-08 9:37 AM
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"We recognize it is a growing concern and we're taking it very seriously," said Benjamin H. Grumbles, assistant administrator for water at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Raddest name for a bureaucrat ever.


Posted by: m. leblanc | Link to this comment | 03-10-08 9:38 AM
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Don't you all have filters on your faucets already to go with your stand mixers?


Posted by: mcmc | Link to this comment | 03-10-08 9:38 AM
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6: So cute.


Posted by: A White Bear | Link to this comment | 03-10-08 9:39 AM
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My Brita filter---which I changed just yesterday, so I read all of the packaging materials while I waited for the first pitcher to cycle---claims only to screen out lead, mercury, cadium, and copper.


Posted by: Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 03-10-08 9:40 AM
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Don't you all have filters on your faucets already to go with your stand mixers?

Even users of bottled water and home filtration systems don't necessarily avoid exposure. Bottlers, some of which simply repackage tap water, do not typically treat or test for pharmaceuticals, according to the industry's main trade group. The same goes for the makers of home filtration systems.

Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 03-10-08 9:43 AM
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JP Stormcrow had the same thought that I did. Contamination surely isn't great, but I'm having a hard time getting worked up over parts per trillion, at least as a cause of anything.

Popular Science had a different take on this kind of research. Researchers can test the sewage of a location and see what kind of illegal drugs the population is using.


Posted by: Cala | Link to this comment | 03-10-08 9:44 AM
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The article says that filters don't screen out pharmaceuticals. When I lived in Davis, I had a distiller once my car died, because the tap water is undrinkable. You can barely cook with it, because the apartment complexes treat it so heavily. They're supposed to keep the kitchen tap separate, but mine didn't.

I wonder whether distilling would get the pharmaceuticals out.


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 03-10-08 9:44 AM
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Once again, this is the hidden advantage of smoking tobacco. It relieves you of having to worry about relatively minor health threats like these.

"Trace amounts of pharmaceuticals in the drinking water? Pshaw, I huff hot, radioactive particulates that have been doused with pesticides, you big wuss."


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 03-10-08 9:46 AM
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10: Andrew Weil used to recommend reverse osmosis systems, and those do seem to work (according to the article), but they're expensive as hell and make a lot of wastewater.


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 03-10-08 9:47 AM
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If tap water contained enough to affect one, wouldn't one also produce false positives on a drug test? IANAmedical professional of any sort, but this job required a drug test and I (expectedly) came out clean as a whistle.


Posted by: Robust McManlyPants | Link to this comment | 03-10-08 9:48 AM
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Thinking about the effects of hormones on the human body reminds me of this book, which is a great little read. Perfect for a weekend afternoon or three-hour plane ride. Very interesting, too.


Posted by: m. leblanc | Link to this comment | 03-10-08 9:48 AM
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wouldn't one also produce false positives on a drug test?

I don't think so. These are tiny amounts of drug; the problem is that no one really knows what effect prolonged repeated exposure has on us.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 03-10-08 9:54 AM
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Never eat poppyseed bagels or muffins on the day of a drug test.


Posted by: pdf23ds | Link to this comment | 03-10-08 9:57 AM
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Of the 28 major metropolitan areas where tests were performed on drinking water supplies, only Albuquerque; Austin, Texas; and Virginia Beach, Va.; said tests were negative. The drinking water in Dallas has been tested, but officials are awaiting results. Arlington, Texas, acknowledged that traces of a pharmaceutical were detected in its drinking water but cited post-9/11 security concerns in refusing to identify the drug.
If this excuse is legitimate, then it's really fucking scary. What do they have in the water that they don't want terrorists to know about? What byproduct of weapons manufacture or something gets into residential water supply in noticeable amounts, which that leads to the question of what byproducts get into the water that haven't been noticed yet?

More likely, of course, they're just using the phrase "post-9/11 security concerns" in the Republican sense of the phrase. "If you ask us questions about this, you support the terrorists."

Also, I found some of the results from specific locations funny. Anti-anxiety medications in the water in southern California. Caffeine in the water in suburban areas. "A sex hormone" in the water in San Francisco.


Posted by: Cyrus | Link to this comment | 03-10-08 9:57 AM
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Yay Austin!


Posted by: pdf23ds | Link to this comment | 03-10-08 9:58 AM
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19: Cocaine in the UMC area in the Popular Science article.


Posted by: Cala | Link to this comment | 03-10-08 10:02 AM
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21: The liquid analog of traces of cocaine on money.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 03-10-08 10:21 AM
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Is this why the water in Austin tastes so bad? I need to find out what's in the water everywhere else so I can add it back in.


Posted by: halax | Link to this comment | 03-10-08 12:42 PM
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