[Pharmwaste] Villanova University wins federal funding to reduce pharmaceuticals in the environment

[Pickrel.Jan at epamail.epa.gov]

EPA Press Release at:
http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/93216b1c8fd122ca85257018004cb2dc/07525998bc29c111852571030055f527!OpenDocument

                                                                         
 Villanova University wins federal funding to reduce pharmaceuticals in  
 the environment                                                         
                                                                         
                                                                         
 Release date:01/27/2006                                                 
                                                                         
                                                                         
 PHILADELPHIA - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency presented a     
 $101,125 pollution prevention grant to Villanova University in Delaware 
 County, Pa. today to study what can be done to reduce the presence of   
 pharmaceuticals in the environment.                                     
                                                                         
 Villanova will carry out a project to prevent pharmaceutically-active   
 chemicals from entering the environment. Under the direction of Dr.     
 Rominder Suri, director of the Villanova Center for the Environment,    
 the project will identify ways to better manage how prescription and    
 non-prescription pharmaceuticals are discarded from university          
 dormitories. Additionally, the project is developing technology to      
 reduce pollution by preventing pharmaceutically-active chemicals from   
 leaving municipal wastewater treatment plants.                          
                                                                         
 “Villanova’s project is significant because it gives us a head start at 
 working on ways to effectively reduce pharmaceuticals in the            
 environment while continuing to learn more about this emerging          
 environmental issue,” said Donald S. Welsh, EPA’s mid-Atlantic regional 
 administrator. “Although EPA is funding this project, the results of    
 Villanova’s work can be useful for other universities that are          
 voluntarily taking steps to reduce pollution on their campuses as their 
 commitment to improving the environment.”                               
                                                                         
 “The leadership of EPA in tackling this problem is exemplary and        
 commendable,” said Suri. “They are recognizing the problem and are      
 taking steps to protect the environment and human populations while at  
 the same time helping the industry by developing treatment technologies 
 and innovative waste minimization approaches.”                          
                                                                         
 For the last 10 years, scientists have been measuring pharmaceutical    
 contamination of lakes, streams, and groundwater. Traces of drugs,      
 excreted by people and livestock, have been found in numerous water     
 sources. Many of these chemicals are “hormone mimics” and interfere     
 with the reproductive system of aquatic organisms. They can have a      
 detrimental effect on the local ecology and sensitive human             
 populations, such as pregnant women, children or the elderly.           
                                                                         
 The grant comes from EPA’s source reduction and pollution prevention    
 program that supports efforts to reduce or eliminate pollution as well  
 as innovations to develop pollution prevention projects of general      
 interest. For more information please visit                             
 http://www.epa.gov/Region3/p2/grants.htm .                              
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Jan Pickrel
Water Permits Division, Industrial Branch
US Environmental Protection Agency
phone:  (202) 564-7904.
fax:  (202) 564-6431.
pickrel.jan at epa.gov