[Pharmwaste] Fw: Unused drugs -

Tue Mar 7 08:13:02 EST 2006

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Cynthia L. Greene
Senior Advisor/Brownfields Conference Coordinator
US EPA New England
1 Congress Street, Suite 1100 (HBT)
Boston, MA 02114-2023
Tel: 617-918-1431
Fax: 617-918-0431
greene.cynthia at epa.gov
www.Brownfields2006.org
----- Forwarded by Cynthia Greene/R1/USEPA/US on 03/07/2006 08:11 AM
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             Nelson/R1/USEPA/                                           
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                                      Cynthia Greene/R1/USEPA/US at EPA    
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                                                                Subject 
                                      Fw:  Unused drugs -               

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                           The Philadelphia Inquirer

                            February 27, 2006 Monday

SECTION: NATIONAL; Pg. A01
LENGTH: 1124 words
HEADLINE: Drinking water gets a drug test
BYLINE: Brian Rademaekers, Inquirer Staff Writer
BODY:     Federal scientists surveying fish in the Potomac River continue
to find
smallmouth bass with a freakish quirk: The males are making eggs and
sperm.     Researchers suspect that these "intersex" bass are victims of a
newly
recognized form of pollution: trace amounts of pharmaceuticals and other
chemicals flushed down toilets or flowing from farms' animal
waste.     Compounds including antibiotics and caffeine drain through
sewage systems
largely untouched, collect in rivers and streams, and eventually return
in tiny
amounts to drinking water.     Until recently, those pollutants had been
virtually undetectable because the
concentrations are so low. But instruments now can identify substances
in parts
per trillion - each part equivalent to a grain of sand in an
Olympic-size
swimming pool - and scientists are finding traces of man-made chemicals
in
streams in Chester County and drinking-water supplies in Philadelphia
and other
cities.     The effect on human health is unknown, but the discovery has
prompted a
flurry of research to measure and remove the trace chemicals.     The
Philadelphia Water Department is participating in a $1 million national
study to measure pharmaceuticals and other chemicals in drinking
water.     Governments in places as diverse as Maine and Ireland are
moving to keep the
compounds out of the water supply.     Even a town as small as Buckingham
Township has gotten in the act. The
farm-rich Bucks County community plans to require residents to dispose
of drugs
in special boxes rather than flushing them.     And Villanova University
scientist Rominder Suri has received a federal grant
to use sound waves to break apart trace compounds and render them
inert.     Some experts fear that traces of antibiotics could worsen
bacterial
resistance and cause those lifesaving drugs to lose potency. Or that the
wide
range of compounds could have some unknown cumulative effect on people.
No one
really knows.     Christopher S. Crockett, manager of watershed protection
at the Philadelphia
Water Department, said the concerns must be kept in perspective. "In
1948, the
Delaware smelled so bad that you could smell it at Broad Street" - 14
blocks
away, said Crockett, whose agency found several parts per trillion of 13
common
drugs in the Schuylkill in 2004.     "To be able to look for these
chemicals at these levels is a luxury,"
Crockett said, adding "we are ready to take action if
necessary."     There is no mystery how the compounds get into water. They
pass through the
sewage system in waste or pill form.     They flow from pharmaceutical
plants that make drugs and flush away the
residue. Or they seep from animal farms that use antibiotics and rarely
treat
their waste.     Fish seem to have borne the brunt of the chemicals'
effects so far.     The presence of dual-sex bass in the Potomac is likely
connected to the
widespread use of "endocrine disrupters," substances that mimic hormones
and
cause male fish to develop female attributes, researchers said.     Those
chemicals include the synthetic hormones in birth-control and
hormone-replacement therapy and substances in such common products as
shampoos
and sunscreens.     While no one has found intersex fish in Southeastern
Pennsylvania, Vicki S.
Blazer, a fish pathologist for the U.S. Geological Survey, said she
would not be
surprised if someone did.     Blazer first found the deformed fish in the
Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers.
Many of the chemicals that cause intersex fish also weaken their immune
systems,
causing them to die or develop lesions, she said.     Fish kills in the
last year on Pennsylvania's Juniata and Susquehanna Rivers
resembled those that led to the discovery of intersex fish in Maryland
and West
Virginia, Blazer said.     The estrogens that worry Blazer have been found
in the Philadelphia area. A
survey directed by Villanova's Suri found natural or synthetic estrogens
in all
21 streams tested in southern and central Chester County in the fall of
2004.     Levels of a potent synthetic estrogen in birth-control
treatments - ethinyl
estradiol - were found in 10 streams at levels up to 30 times the amount
that,
in the lab, had been shown to affect the sexual organs of fish, he
said.     Suri called the contaminants an "emerging environmental issue"
that should
change the way sewage is treated. Hospitals and nursing homes may
eventually
have to install equipment to remove the drugs from waste, he said.     The
Schuylkill basin, which supplies water to 1.5 million people, could pose
a special challenge. Water intake pipes are downstream from the river's
confluence with Wissahickon Creek, which carries effluent from five
sewage
plants and a Merck pharmaceutical factory.     City water officials found
tiny amounts of 13 drugs in tests of Schuylkill
water during the summer of 2004. Among those were over-the-counter
painkillers,
antibiotics, antidepressants, and the contrasting agents that patients
drink to
make X-rays work better.     The department also tested drinking water and
found parts per trillion of six
chemicals, including estrogen, antidepressants, and the insect repellent
DEET.     "It is a limited snapshot, and that is why we are doing the
follow-up work,"
said Crockett, who thinks the water is safe.     Nick DiNardo, coordinator
of the Environmental Protection Agency's Innovation
Action Council for the Mid-Atlantic region, said the EPA was far from
setting
acceptable levels of pharmaceuticals in treated waste. Such limits would
be
established "way after the research is done," he said.     Last month,
DiNardo's group gave a $101,000 grant to Villanova's Center for
the Environment, which Suri directs, to develop ultrasound technology
that can
remove the waste.     Suri has also gotten support from a Villanova
neighbor, the pharmaceutical
firm Wyeth, to explore the technology. Wyeth does not make pills in
Pennsylvania, a spokesman said.     The ultrasound treatment works by
blasting wastewater with sound waves,
creating heat and chemical reactions that destroy
pharmaceuticals.     Suri also is looking into low-tech methods, such as
collection boxes for
drugs at universities and health facilities.     But this method could be
complicated because of federal guidelines for
handling controlled substances. Collection sites require the presence of
a law
enforcement officer.     Last year, Maine arranged its first drug
collection in a pharmacy. Fifty-two
people turned in 55,000 pills as police looked on.     But Maine
psychiatrist Stevan Gressitt, a key supporter of the state's
drug-collection law, said a more thorough solution was needed. In a few
months,
Maine will begin allowing residents to mail unused drugs to the
state.     Gressitt called this "an industrial-sized solution" that could
help keep
drugs out of drinking water nationally.     Contact staff writer Brian
Rademaekers at 215-854-5568 or
brademaekers at phillynews.com.