Rolf Halden, an adjunct associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and associate professor at Arizona State University, has done extensive research into contaminants in drinking water.
He spoke with The Examiner about pharmaceuticals and personal care products, such as cosmetics and vitamins, in the environment.
What do we know about the low levels of pharmaceuticals found in water?
We are now beginning to appreciate the presence of pharmaceuticals and residues of personal care products in the environment.
In the past 10 years, great strides have been made.
We are becoming cognizant now that these products enter the environment and in some instances don’t degrade.
What is lacking is a more complete understanding of the ramifications of these detections.
We already know some pharmaceuticals and personal care products have hormonal functions and these are the chemicals that have great concern.
It’s difficult to pinpoint. It’s not easy to determine which chemical is responsible. But the science is fairly young. There is much to be learned.
So we haven’t had the right tests to detect pharmaceuticals?
We just became aware of the presence of the chemicals, because we developed the analytical tools to detect these amounts.
What are the health effects of the contamination?
You have to take a look at whether people drink this water and if it’s treated to remove chemicals. In a lot of instances, we have effective treatments of these chemicals.
What seems more important is the effect of the knowledge that people drink water that is recycled. The truth is there is no virgin water.
Everything is recycled. The water has been many places. That is a reality.
As the planet becomes more populated, we have to appreciate that water is a limited resource.
The message should be not to scare people but to make them consider how they use water and stop thinking about it as wastewater.
