Editorial missed important point

Reading your editorial of March 18 prompted me to revisit the Associated Press article about drugs in the drinking water. While your suggestion that people should dispose of unused prescription drugs more safely is certainly worthwhile, I think you missed something in your reading of the initial article: "People take pills. Their bodies absorb some of the medication, but the rest of it passes through and is flushed down the toilet.... But most treatments do not remove all drug residue."

The hazardous waste is not just created by tossing unused pills, but from passing them through our bodies.

It is hard to imagine how society will be able to influence people to reduce their reliance on and ingestion of prescription or non-prescription drugs without some sort of intervention; these drugs are pushed on us unrelentingly by the business called health care.

Diane Dassow

Lombard