AP probe finds drugs in drinking water

How do the drugs get into the water?
People take pills. Their bodies absorb some of the medication, but the rest of it passes through and is flushed down the toilet. The wastewater is treated before it is discharged into reservoirs, rivers or lakes. Then, some of the water is cleansed again at drinking water treatment plants and piped to consumers. But most treatments do not remove all drug residue…
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.
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Contamination is not confined to the United States. More than 100 different pharmaceuticals have been detected in lakes, rivers, reservoirs and streams throughout the world. Studies have detected pharmaceuticals in waters throughout Asia, Australia, Canada and Europe — even in Swiss lakes and the North Sea.
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In the United States, the problem isn't confined to surface waters. Pharmaceuticals also permeate aquifers deep underground, source of 40 percent of the nation's water supply. Federal scientists who drew water in 24 states from aquifers near contaminant sources such as landfills and animal feed lots found minuscule levels of hormones, antibiotics and other drugs.
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One technology, reverse osmosis, removes virtually all pharmaceutical contaminants but is very expensive for large-scale use and leaves several gallons of polluted water for every one that is made drinkable.
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Recent laboratory research has found that small amounts of medication have affected human embryonic kidney cells, human blood cells and human breast cancer cells. The cancer cells proliferated too quickly; the kidney cells grew too slowly; and the blood cells showed biological activity associated with inflammation.

Oxen Cart

When I was very young, I used to travel with carts like this. Actually, I grew up in a small village near Moulmein, the capital of Mon State; the population was small and most were poor farmers. The name is 'Kwai-Wan' - I don't know how to translate it properly. In my village, most houses had a place to 'park' their carts and a place, like stables,for the oxen and cows which were used in both transportation and ploughing (plowing) the rice fields, and also other purposes.

As they have been used in rice fields, the Burmese believe they should not eat these animals because these animals feed them. In India, Oxen and cows are accepted as gods.

I had a few experiences with the carts other than traveling on them. I saw how people put the rims around the wheels. I heard people said how these animals could sense supernatural things and would refuse to go across usually a bridge. Every dusk, the animals were coming back into the village from grazing places nearby the villages.

I feel I miss my village.