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Even if that was true, why should we shift the blame away from an entity with plausible ability to solve it, and towards the great mass of people who are imposs

• post_break 5y ago
  So you're saying if it were coming from people throwing meds down the toilet, we should blame the drug makers? Is that what you're saying or am I misunderstanding?
  • rootusrootus 5y ago
    > we should blame the drug makers? No, of course not. What I am saying is that our best shot at getting pharmaceuticals out of fresh water is better sewer & water treatment. We can control that. It is implausible to control people who are, within the privacy of their bathroom, chucking random things down the toilet. The only thing that would stop that behavior is immediate consequences to them personally. Edit: And this assumes it is all people chucking drugs down the toilet. If it's coming through their urine, then we're definitely back to water treatment being the only plausible answer.
• giantg2 5y ago
  "entity with plausible ability to solve it" I didn't see a mention of an overall solution in the article. I see they mention that leaky pipes could be the cause for that stream. Is there evidence to suggest that the sewage treatment facility actually removes these chemicals?
  • rootusrootus 5y ago
    A quick google search suggests that a typical basic sewage treatment plant doesn't do a great job of removing pharmaceuticals. But we already do have some plants which are pretty good at it. So this isn't even really an engineering problem at this point, it's a political(funding) problem.