“If you visit American city, you will think it very pretty,
Just two things of which you must beware:
Don’t drink the water, and don’t breath the air!

Pollution, pollution, we’ve got smog and sewage and mud,
Turn on your tap and get hot and cold running crud.

See the halibuts and the sturgeons
Being wiped out by detergents.
Fish gotta swim and birds gotta fly,
But they don’t last long if they try.

Pollution, pollution,
You can use the latest toothpaste,
And then rinse your mouth with industrial waste.

Just go out for a breath of air,
And you’ll be ready for medicare.
The city streets are really quite a thrill.
If the hoods don’t get you, the monoxide will.

Pollution, pollution,
Wear a gas mask and a veil.
Then you can breathe, long as you don’t inhale.

Lots of things there that you can drink,
But stay away from the kitchen sink.
The breakfast garbage that you throw in to the bay,
They drink at lunch in San Jose.

So go to the city, see the crazy people there.
Like lambs to the slaughter,
They’re drinking the water
And breathing the air.

More lyrics: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/t/tom+lehrer/#share

they _should_ be informing the public about the actual measures they should be taking, namely to never, EVER, throw left over medications down the drain or in the toilet.

I think you’re kind of missing the point. This is an effect of modernity, regardless of “proper disposal,” because a lot of the contamination has nothing to do with improper disposal.

I live on a big, eastern river, and biologists have been noticing a lot of horrible mutations of the fish in the water. As near as they can figure out they are being caused by pharmaceutical tainting– in this case the hormones in women’s birth control pills. The women aren’t throwing them out; they’re eating them (and then, subsequently, peeing).

I agree with you that “fear mongering” doesn’t help situations, but neither does proposing simple solutions that ignore the systemic issues that are causing the problems in the first place. If people take birth control pills or anti-depressants, etc., then these things will end up in the water, and with an ever-growing population (and increasing per-capita use), the environment will continue to degrade. And disposing of your drugs correctly isn’t going to make it go away.

This isn’t meant to be fear mongering, but: in case you haven’t noticed, the world is dying. And unless we face that fact we’re not going to put our efforts in the right direction.

So should I stop taking my medications, or stop peeing?

Yes. Probably.

Got to love how our so called educated society keeps finding new urban legends and repeating them ad nauseam.

Oh yea? Well tell that to the freaking #comment-886832 If anyone has actually driven on the 237 just west of the Milpitas 880 junction and before Central Expwy and gone "God what is that awful smell?!" and pinched their nose shut, that my friends, is Alviso....nuff said. If anyone has actually driven on the 237 just west of the Milpitas 880 junction and before Central Expwy and gone “God what is that awful smell?!” and pinched their nose shut, that my friends, is Alviso….nuff said.

Don’t put it in the trash, don’t burn it, don’t put it in your recycling. Fentanyl is an opioid pain reliever, class two drug. Why flush it? Because the overwhelming concentration of water to opioid will render the substance neutral. Any other disposal method is dangerous, potentially lethal. It’s a very, very deep sea.

Instead of informing people about the (largely fictional) “yet-unregulated pharmaceutical disposal industry” which isn’t to blame for this problem, they _should_ be informing the public about the actual measures they should be taking, namely to never, EVER, throw left over medications down the drain or in the toilet. Take them to your local pharmacy (which in an increasing number of places accept left-over meds for proper disposal), or if you must dispose of them yourself, incinerate them.

And you should encourage people to get their politicians to pass local laws requiring proper disposal of medications, and to fund research into, and the building of better water-treatment plants.

The municipal water company in Stockholm, Sweden (a city of 1.6 million) just concluded a 4 year, full-scale study of various methods of removing residual drugs in wastewater treatment, last April. They tested adsorption by active charcoal, ozonation, UV degradation, hydrogen peroxide, additional biofilters, nanofilters, osmosis, etc. They found that they could achieve removal of around 95% of the residues left after the existing treatment, but that it’d lead to a 10-40% cost increase (depending on the size of the treatment plant).

While we’re taking hints from the Swedes, how about some plants for producing natural gas from sewage and help fix global warming? They’re already building them.

But then the parent companies would sue them for patient infringement…

…right? :-\