|
Here in NYC, this problem was very public a few decades ago because the Hudson River was like a big festering dump that ran right along the city. I know for a fact that we have both primary and secondary treatment here today (I forget if there is tertiary), but I recall all too much of all my intro level environmental science classes and the class I took on the Hudson River environment. It's more than sad and gross that it never occurs to people that our shit (and trash) has to go somewhere and that there's a whole lot of it: I remember reading about a study (I think it was in the UK) on the effects of estrogen in the water supply on male fertility. Apparently, there are so many women using hormone treatments (for contraception) that the estrogen, which isn't removed through the sewage treatment, effectively sterilizes all the male fish in water bodies into which sewage treatment plants discharge. It causes such great deformations in the sperm of the fish that they are unable to reproduce. At the time I heard about this (a couple of years ago), the jury was still out on whether the gradual increase in sperm abnormalities in human males in the last couple of generations could be attributed to this effect.
Keep in mind, this is just what is already being studied. Imagine all of the other things we let into our bodies constantly - through the air, water and foods - that we have little or no control over as individuals.
__________________
"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."
(Michael Jordan)
|