Choices 11. Down the Drain - 1

When things go down the drain, have we really flushed them out of our lives?
How do we know which chemicals accumulate, which are safe or not?
Why care about fish changing sex?

In this episode, we talk about emerging contaminants, pseudo-persistence and One-Health 

You are probably aware, by now, that we should not pour fat down the kitchen sink or flush tampons, condoms, wet wipes, hair, floss down the toilet. These clog the system at home or in the sewers or wastewater treatment plants. In the UK at least, the media and people have a morbid fascination with what they call ‘fatbergs’ gathered / congealed masses of fat in the sewers.

There is also increasing awareness of microplastics – bits of plastic that is too small to see or barely  visible - --- from microbeads in toiletries to microfibres from synthetic clothing, blankets, rags, and the like. We will get to this in Down the Drain 2.

How about toiletries like make up, cleansers, shampoos and conditioners? How about medicines like painkillers, antidepressants, birth control pills and antibiotics? You may assume because they are certified to be used on and in our bodies, they must be alright for the environment too. That could be the case if the chemical ingredients were not accumulating in the environment. 

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