"An antibiotic widely used in soaps and cosmetics that mostly goes down the drain is slowly converting to toxins at the bottom of many of Minnesota's lakes and rivers."

"A new analysis of sediment in eight lakes and rivers used by municipal wastewater treatment plants found that amounts of the antibiotic triclosan and the toxins it forms have been steadily increasing since it was first used in Dial soap in the 1960s.

The research by scientists at the University of Minnesota and the Science Museum of Minnesota is the first to show how pervasive the contaminant has become in tiny lakes and giant rivers, and that the same is likely true across the country."

Josephine Marcotty reports for the Minneapolis Star Tribune January 21, 2013. [2]