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Water Pollution Caused by Birth Control
After the active ingredient in most birth control pills has done its duty at preventing pregnancy, it begins a second life as a pollutant that can harm wildlife in waterways. Ethinyl estradiol is quite potent which is creating “intersex” fish and amphibians, plus it is very difficult to remove from wastewater.
This is a global problem, but the European Union is the first to seriously consider mandating the removal of ethinyl estradiol, also known as EE2, from wastewater. However, it will be quite costly to do. The cost to upgrade about 1,360 wastewater treatment plants across England and Wales would be between $41 billion and $47 billion, according to Richard Owen, a professor at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom. And Owen wonders “Are we willing to pay this as a society, or, would we prefer to live with the environmental impact?”
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