An investigation by the Associated Press found that a wide variety of pharmaceuticals -- including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers, and sex hormones -- have been detected in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans. While the concentrations are low, the fact that they are there at all is troubling. Scientists worry about the risks posed by long-term exposure to these chemicals.
How do the meds get in the drinking water? People take pills. A portion of the pills is absorbed by the body and the rest is flushed down the toilet. People also flush old or unused medicine. This sewage is treated and discharged into surface water like rivers or lakes. The surface water is then used as a drinking water supply and is treated again to make it fit for human consumption. Unfortunately, all this treatment still does not remove all of the pharmaceuticals from the water.
These particular types of contaminants, which are sometimes called pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs), are not removed from drinking water by conventional water treatment technologies. In fact, public water supplies are not even required to test for them under existing federal and state drinking water regulations.
Chicago is among the major public water supplies in the U.S. that do not test its drinking water for pharmaceuticals:
"We perform all the tests asked for by the [U.S.] Environmental Protection Agency," said Tom LaPorte, spokesman for Chicago's Department of Water Management. "We are confident our purified water is safe."
Moline's water general manager Greg Swanson said that the city also does not test its water for these chemicals:
"Science marches on, and when we have the ability to detect substances in smaller and smaller amounts, that's how these issues emerge. We know it's potentially a concern."
While it's true that technical advancements allow us to detect contaminants at lower levels, a major cause for concern is that pharmaceuticals are specifically designed to cause a biological response at very low levels:
The small concentrations, however, belie the potentially powerful effects of these compounds. Pharmaceuticals are specifically designed to elicit a biological response at very low levels, and scientists are increasingly becoming aware of how medications let loose on the environment may have effects no one ever anticipated.
PPCPs not only contaminate our public water supplies, but the drugs are also harmful to aquatic life such as fish:
By far, the most dramatic example of this kind of pharmaceutical pollution has been the effect of estrogenic compounds on fish. In the 1990s, scientists working in the U.K. noted that male fish living downstream from wastewater treatment plants were becoming feminized. They were making proteins associated with egg production in female fish, and they were developing early-stage eggs in their testes. Feminized male fish have now been observed in rivers and streams in the U.S. and Europe.
More than 100 different pharmaceuticals have been detected in surface waters throughout the world:
"It's inescapable," said Sudeep Chandra, an assistant professor at University of Nevada, Reno who studies inland waters and aquatic life. "There's enough global information now to confirm these contaminants are affecting organisms and wildlife."
What is the best way to dispose of old or unused pharmaceuticals? Well, don't routinely flush them. Also, throwing them in the trash isn't a good idea either because the trash is typically disposed in a landfill. The pharmaceuticals in this trash then enter the landfill's leachate, and this leachate is collected and is usually taken to a sewage treatment plant for treatment -- so it basically ends up back in the same place that it would if you flushed them. Pharmaceutical take-back programs conducted by pharmacies, doctor and dental offices, state and local governments, seem to be the best method for disposal, although these programs are currently few in number and hard to find. The federal government has some basic guidelines on how to properly dispose of old and unused drugs.
Although the Illinois EPA does not require the State's public water supplies to test for PPCPs, it has started a pilot program to collect old and unused pharmaceuticals in the City of Galesburg and the counties of Kendall, Will, Knox and McDonough.
A bill currently pending in the General Assembly, House Amendment 4 to HB 2277, creates the "Prescription and Consumer Drug and Sharps Disposal Act." The bill requires the Illinois EPA, the Illinois Department of Public Health, and the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation to establish a pilot program to collect old and unused drugs and to collect used sharps (e.g., syringes). Pharmacies in the areas selected for the pilot projects are required to participate. House Amendment 4 to HB 2277 will be heard in the House Environmental Health Committee on Tuesday, March 11, at 1:00 p.m., in Room 115 of the Capitol. There is strong opposition to the bill.
