Which of the following most logically completes the passage?

Using new detection techniques, researchers have found trace amounts of various medicinal substances in lakes and rivers. Taken in large quantities, these substances could have serious health effects, but they are present in quantities far too low to cause any physiological response in people who drink the water or bathe in it. Nevertheless, medical experts contend that eliminating these trace amounts from the water will have public health benefits, since __________.

【选项】most medicinal substances that reach lakes or rivers rapidly break down into harmless substances