Hospital Drugs Finding Their Way Into NYC Water Supply

If you are interested in finding an inexpensive blood pressure medication or birth control pill and you live in NYC you might try just drinking some tap water. Hospitals in the New York area are flushing so many medications down the toilet that a significant amount of the stuff is ending up in the city's water supply. State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office has been conducting an investigation and he has said that there are medications showing up in the drinking water of the city that should not be there and may be dangerous. The problem according to his office is not serious yet but he is looking to take action now to prevent it from becoming a bigger problem in the future. Cuomo wants to conduct a crackdown on hospitals and nursing homes that flush left over medications down the toilets and sinks like anti-depressants, hormones, and sleeping pills. The meds are ending up in reservoirs upstate and in the drinking water supply which feeds the NYC and surrounding area which is populated by over 9 million people. The practice is legal and the hospitals are not breaking any laws but Cuomo has said that if it continues it will effect the purity of the city's water supply so he is putting pressure on hospitals in the city to not flush the stuff down the toilet anymore and instead find some other way to dispose of the drugs where in which they don't end up in the water supply. Once the stuff gets into the water there is no current technology that is capable of filtering it all out so not introducing the drugs to the water supply in the first place would solve the problem. The levels of medications in the drinking water presently are too low to cause any kinds of problems but if they continue to increase they could present a health hazard to the general public over time.