[Pharmwaste] Fw: FYI: Bay State Worsens Prescription Drug in
Drinking Water Problem
Greene.Cynthia at epamail.epa.gov
Greene.Cynthia at epamail.epa.gov
Tue May 13 09:32:18 EDT 2008
FYI
Paper is a valuable resource, please don't print this message unless
necessary.
Cynthia L. Greene
Senior Advisor
US EPA New England
1 Congress Street, Suite 1100 (SPP)
Boston, MA 02114-2023
Tel: 617-918-1813
Fax: 617-918-0813
greene.cynthia at epa.gov
-----I
----- Forwarded by Cynthia Greene/R1/USEPA/US on 05/12/2008 02:47 PM
-----
Christian
Daughton/LV/USEP
A/US To
Cynthia Greene/R1/USEPA/US at EPA
05/12/2008 02:43 cc
PM
Subject
FYI: Bay State Worsens
Prescription Drug in Drinking
Water Problem
Enviro
Bay State Worsens Prescription Drug in Drinking Water Problem
Author: Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER)
Published on May 12, 2008 - 7:39:08 AM
Boston, May 12, 2008 -- Massachusetts is pursuing policies that
aggravate contamination of its drinking water with pharmaceuticals and
personal care products, according to legislative testimony released
today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The
Bay State is moving to let hospitals, nursing homes and other
facilities with potential to discharge high concentrations of
medications, hormones, dietary supplements, cleaning agents into
groundwater near municipal and private drinking water wells.
Chemicals in over-the-counter and prescription drugs as well as
personal care products (PPCPs) are not completely metabolized by the
human body and thus end up entering rivers and groundwater that supply
our drinking water. Even minute doses of these chemicals, which are not
screened in water treatment, can affect human health, especially
children, the elderly, and people with immune deficiencies.
Many of these chemicals are endocrine-disrupting compounds that either
block or mimic natural hormones, thereby disrupting normal functioning
of organs. Constant exposure through drinking water is particularly
worrisome to a growing network of scientists and public health experts.
The only sure strategy is to prevent the chemicals from entering
drinking water in the first place. Yet, in a regulatory action that
would frustrate a prevention strategy, Massachusetts is poised to
permit construction of hospitals, nursing homes and assisted living
facilities in areas influencing municipal drinking water wells (i.e.,
classified as "Zone II").
"Massachusetts appears to be giving only lip service to the problem of
PPCP contamination," states New England PEER Director Kyla Bennett, a
former EPA biologist and lawyer in testimony to be delivered tomorrow
before a special hearing of the Joint Committee on Public Health and
the Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture
on "Reports of Pharmaceutical Contamination in Public Water Supplies".
"The state's new proposed regulations will reclassify nursing homes and
hospitals as 'residences' therefore making it easier for these
facilities to discharge into the groundwater affecting municipal
wells."
.
Aggravating the danger is that nearly half (47.8%) of groundwater
discharge permits in the state are in significant non-compliance with
their permit limits, according to FY 2007 posted by the state
Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). This means that the
chemical discharges into groundwater are likely much larger than
officially established limits and are, essentially, unmonitored.
"Besides lacking a coherent strategy for addressing this problem, our
DEP is actually facilitating even more contamination of our water
supplies," Bennett added. "Prevention is essential because there are
tens of thousands of pharmaceuticals on the market, with thousands more
new products introduced annually, and we cannot track all these
chemicals, let alone anticipate the untold synergistic effects of all
the possible chemical combinations."
Website: www.peer.org
© Copyright 2007 YubaNet.com
====================
Christian Daughton, Ph.D.
Chief, Environmental Chemistry Branch
Environmental Sciences Division
National Exposure Research Laboratory
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
944 East Harmon
Las Vegas, NV 89119
702-798-2207
daughton.christian at epa.gov
http://epa.gov/nerlesd1/bios/daughton.htm
More information about the Pharmwaste
mailing list