Medications meant to cure headaches or prevent pregnancy are being flushed down toilets or washed down sinks, making their way into the water supply, but little is known about how the low levels of pharmaceuticals can affect aquatic life or public health.
“We don’t have a body of science that says it is in the public’s best interest to remove these ultra trace amounts as opposed to spending [the money] elsewhere,” said Greg Allen, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency environmental scientist at the Chesapeake Bay Program, a regional restoration organization.
Efforts to clean up the Chesapeake Bay have centered on removing nitrogen and phosphorus — the two major culprits from agricultural and urban runoff.
Now, researchers and federal regulators are turning their sites on the invisible chemicals from pharmaceuticals, such as hormones, and personal care products such as antibacterial soap, and how to dispose of or regulate them.
Missing regulations
No federal regulations for pharmaceuticals in surface or drinking water exist, said Suzanne Rudzinski, deputy director of the Office of Science and Technology in the EPA’s Office of Water.
“EPA is conducting several studies [on] when pharmaceuticals occur in the water and how to best remove them from wastewater and drinking water,” she said.
For example, the EPA is studying the disposal of unused medications from health care institutions, and is surveying a national sample of hospitals, long-term care facilities and veterinary hospitals for their practices for potential regulatory action.
In February 2007, federal officials changed their stance on flushing unused pharmaceuticals, saying people should only do so if the accompanying patient information deems it OK, Rudzinski said.
The disposal of unused narcotics is governed by the Controlled Substances Act, and hazardous pharmaceutical waste — which accounts for about 5 percent of pharmaceutical waste — is disposed of based on guidelines in the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, Rudzinski said.
But the hundreds of other chemicals found in over-the-counter or prescription drugs and personal care products aren’t regulated.
The EPA has identified 287 pharmaceuticals that “may be of concern in drinking water,” said Kim Lamphier, spokeswoman for the Maryland Department of the Environment, which regulates public water supplies.
Intersex fish found
As to which pharmaceuticals are in the water, “nobody knows for sure,” said Ed Merrifield, executive director of advocacy group Potomac Riverkeeper.
Intersex fish — those with male and female characteristics — have been found in the Potomac, a finding some scientists say may be linked to drugs and hormones.
Even small amounts found in some tests are “a bad thing,” Merrifield said.
“Now, we are just gambling with our health,” he said.
The issue of pharmaceuticals in the water is “really just emerging now,” said Allen, the Chesapeake Bay Program scientist.
Scientists have developed increasingly sensitive tests that detect low levels of pollutants, he said.
A U.S. Geological Survey study in the Shenandoah and James river basins in Virginia this spring sought to identify chemicals that may have caused intersex fish, external lesions on the fish or death.
Scientists detected low levels of chemicals, including prescription pharmaceuticals, caffeine and hormones.
“Increasingly, environmental scientists are acknowledging that in addition to contaminants of historic concern, emerging contaminants, including pharmaceuticals, new generation pesticides, personal care products, and natural and synthetic hormones, are potential sources of adverse effects,” the study states.
USGS spokeswoman A.B. Wade said results from research and sampling done in the Baltimore area are not yet available.
Contaminants linger for decades
Rolf Halden, an adjunct associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and associate professor at Arizona State University, has studied the contaminants triclocarban and triclosan found in antibacterial soap, in the Chesapeake Bay and Jamaica Bay in New York.
Halden’s team found trace amounts of these contaminants, shown to disrupt some ecological processes, dating back about 50 years in the waters around the Back River wastewater treatment plant in Baltimore County.
“They didn’t break down, and they were discharged and settled, and they are still there,” he said.
However, because research is scant, pharmaceuticals don’t get the same attention as nitrogen and phosphorus, nutrients choking the bay’s rivers and streams.
“We know where [the nutrients] come from and what they do and how to get rid of them,” said Jenn Aiosa, senior scientist in the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Maryland office.
Most experts and advocates say the levels of pharmaceuticals in the water is not something to panic about.
“It’s not a crisis, but we do want to know more about the effects of these low levels,” Allen said.
Rather than be scared, Halden said people should think about what they put in the water.
“We have to be careful.”
How to dispose of prescription drugs
• Take unused or expired medications out of their original containers.
• Mix the drugs with used coffee grounds or kitty litter and put them in a non-descript container to ensure they are not ingested by children or pets.
• Throw this in the trash.
• Flush medications only if the patient information says it’s safe to do so.
Source: U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy
WEB EXTRA
Click these links to learn more about this topic.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s site on pharmaceuticals and personal
care products:
http://www.epa.gov/ppcp/
U.S. Geological Survey’s Toxic Substances Hydrology Program on environmental
contaminants
http://toxics.usgs.gov/
U.S.G.S. Study: Reconnaissance of Persistent and Emerging Contaminants in
the Shenandoah and James River Basins, Virginia, During Spring of 2007
pubs.usgs.gov/of/2008/1231/pdf/OF2008-1231.pdf
Potomac Riverkeeper
http://www.potomacriverkeeper.org/cms/index.php
