As Antibiotics, Hormones Taint Water, Florida Uses New Purifying Techniques.

By Debbie Salamone, The Orlando Sentinel, Fla. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Jul. 28--The newest water-pollution threat starts with a simple cup of coffee, a smoke break, a spray of cologne, a few headache pills or some cholesterol-lowering medicine.

Thousands of man-made chemicals and drugs are designed to soothe, clean and heal the human body. But when we wash off the remnants in the shower or flush them out of our bodies into the toilet, the byproducts of our individual habits can accumulate to corrupt our common water sources, new research suggests.

Tiny amounts of everyday products ranging from caffeine and hormones to antibiotics and detergents survive in wastewater throughout the country even after it is cleaned and disinfected. Much of that treated wastewater is then flushed into rivers, sprayed on lawns or put underground to replenish drinking-water supplies.

Today, chapter eight of the Orlando Sentinel's yearlong series on Florida's water crisis examines how Florida's push to find new water sources might be running headlong into this most personal of pollution sources: The body toxic.

Contamination from drugs and personal products is an emerging challenge for scientists, used to dealing with more-traditional, outdoor pollutants such as pesticides. Researchers never thought drugs and chemicals used inside homes would get into the environment, partly because they are used in such small amounts. So, neither wastewater nor drinking-water processes have been designed specifically to eliminate them, unlike other common pollutants for which federal safety standards have been set.

"It's possible people are drinking some of these," said Herb Buxton, a toxic-substances expert with the U.S. Geological Survey in New Jersey.