There are prescription medicine elements in America's tap water. The news was broken by AP and has become a source of huge concern about the safety of drinking water. Basically tap water is found to contain traces of prescription drugs in D.C. area.

Two-time Academy Award winner Hilary Swank today helped kick off a race to bring safe drinking water to 20 million people by 2015 at a United Nations Headquarters ceremony that included live world music and students that have raised funds for water and sanitation projects.

A new generation of water filtration materials is enabling municipalities and industries in the United States and water-short countries overseas to produce safe drinking water from supplies contaminated with salts and other undesirable compounds, according to an article scheduled for the April 23 issue of Chemical & Engineering News, ACS' weekly newsmagazine.

A simple, affordable household filtration device can reduce the incidence of diarrhea, one of the leading causes of disease and death in developing countries, by up to 40 percent, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have shown.