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Why the city is technically not breaking any rules or laws by excluding them, their failure to list some of what was found in the waters of Lake Michigan seems disingenuous. The annual report was recently sent to residents across the cities and while the City did follow the rules, the Tribune took a look at the full report and came across a few discoveries:
According to results posted on the city's Web site, the tests found small amounts of the sex hormones testosterone and progesterone; gemfibrozil, a prescription cholesterol-fighting drug; ibuprofen, an over-the-counter painkiller, and DEET, the active ingredient in bug spray.
Ew. Of course, the city is meeting all standards set, but as the Trib points out, maybe it wouldn't to hurt to expand the list of chemicals it tests for a la Milwaukee or make it a bit easier to track down exactly what's in the water.
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This story grossed me out.
the first sentence in the story made me feel nauseous, but that was just the effects of the garbled syntax.
So out of curiosity as person who frequently swims in the lake (How can I not? I hate the heat and it's two blocks from my apartment), are the levels of this high enough to make me sick or mess with my body chemistry? I mean swimming in anything with any sort of waves means swallowing a bit of water here and there...should I be concerned?
Mr Sunshine,
It is just fine to swim in the Lake and is just fine to drink the water. "The dose makes the poison" and the concentrations of drugs are are 1 in 1 trillion levels. When you apply your sun screen the ingredients pass your skin into your blood stream at 1000 fold higher concentrations. When you ride your bike home you are exposed to 10,000 fold higher concentrations of organic compounds in car exhaust. When you drink your bottled water you are ingesting all the compounds that went into making that bottle. And when you sip a cold one on a hot summer day you are exposing yourself to the most carcinogenic thing you consume. Despite all this, we all seem so survive pretty well. We need to understand pharmaceuticals in our water better, no doubt. But these are the least of our worries. Enjoy our glacial lake!