Prozac, antibiotics, health and beauty products, steroids, disinfectants, fire retardants, DEET, caffeine and more are increasingly being found in America's waterways. As we wash these substances off our bodies or eliminate them, they head down the drain to wastewater treatment plants that not only aren't equipped to deal with these kinds of compounds, but have no standards for how much of any of them is acceptable in water. While scientists say that the levels in drinking water are below what could be considered a therapeutic dose of any of these chemicals, not much is known about the potential health effects of long-term, low-level exposure. The Hartford Courant has the rest of the story.
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