[Pharmwaste] FW: [text] drugs in leachate and sludges--tip of the iceberg

[Pete Pasterz]

FYI

 Pete Pasterz, NCQRP
Cabarrus County Recycling and HHW
PO BOX 707 
Concord, NC  28026
www.cabarruscounty.us
If you're not for ZERO Waste, how much Waste ARE you for?


-----Original Message-----
From: Caroline Snyder [mailto:csnyder at worldpath.net] 
Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2008 5:53 PM
To: Pete Pasterz; pharmawaste at lists.dep.state.fl.us; mkeane at willcountylanduse.com; Ann Schneider; Peter Anderson; Lynn Pledger; Chris W. Burger; Marlene Raynor; Gary Liss; Bill Sheehan
Cc: Doris Cellarius
Subject: [text] drugs in leachate and sludges

Programs urging consumers not to flush pharmaceuticals down the drain or 
place them in their trash are admirable, and should be fully supported. 
However, these programs do not address the other much more dangerous 
personal care products that end up in landfill leachates and sludges, 
nor the much larger amounts of industrial chemical compounds that end up 
in POTWs and landfills.

In other words, what is being discussed here is only THE TIP OF THE 
ICEBERG. Landfill leachates and superfund leachates frequently are 
discharged back into POTWs, where they add to the already 
toxics-containing complex mix of tens of thousands of man-made 
unregulated chemical compounds. Testing of sludges and leachates for a 
very limited number of analytes is an exercise in futility. In fact, a 
2002 National Academy of Science Report on biosolids warned that there 
is no way this complex and unpredictable mix of thousands of man-made 
organic compounds can EVER be reliably regulated or tested. And 
remember: "the dose makes the poison" may apply to drugs (there is no 
evidence that pharmaceuticals in drinking water have ever caused 
illness) but not to hormone-disrupting chemicals which do their 
[documented] damage to a developing organism in tiny doses, in parts per 
trillion, determined by the TIME of exposure. .Since living organisms 
develop at different times during the year, how can endocrine disrupters 
EVER be regulated? Unless they are totally eliminated from the waste stream?

Here is are some articles:

Hale,R.C. . Alkylphenol ethoxylate degradation products in land applied 
sewage
sludges (biosolids). (2002). Environmental Science and Technology.

Silva, E; et al. Something from “Nothing”—Eight Weak Estrogenic 
Chemicals Combined at Concentrations below NOECs Produce Significant 
Mixture Effects (2002)
Environmental Science and Technology vol 36.

Jensen, J. (1999) Fate and effects of linear alkylbenzene sulphonates 
(LAS) in the terrestrial environment. Science of the Total Environment 
226 ( 2-3).

Khan, S.J. and J.E. Ongerth. (2002). Estimation of pharmaceutical 
residues in primary and secondary sludge based on quantities of use and 
fugacity modeling. Water Science and Technology 46(3)

Dizer, H. et al. (2002). Estrogenic effect of leachates and soil 
extracts from lysimeters spiked with sewage sludge and reference 
endocrine disrupters. Environmental Toxicology, 17 (2).

Kinney C. Furlong E.T. et al (2006) Survey of organic wastewater 
contaminants in biosolids destined for land application EST Vol..40. No 
23 7202-7215.

Kinney C. Furlong E,T, et al (2008) Bioaccumulation of pharmaceuticals 
and other anthropogenic waste indicators in earthworms from agricultural 
soil amended with biosolids or swine {CAFO} manure. EST

Glassmeyer S.T. Furlong E.T. et al (2005) Transport of chemical and 
microbial compounds from known wastewater discharges-potential for use 
as indicators of human fecal contamination. EST V. 39 No 14. 5157-5169.

Paul C. Rhind S.M. et al (2005) Cellular and hormonal disruption of 
fetal testis development in sheep raised on pastures treated with sewage 
sludge. EHP Vol. 113. No 11.

Harrison E.Z. Oakes S.R. et al (2006) Organic chemicals in sewage 
sludges. Science of the Total Environment.

Hale, R.C; M. J. LaGuardia. (2002). Synthetic Organic Pollutants in 
Land-Applied Sludges. Directions in Science 1, 10-13.

Howard,V.(1997). Synergistic effects of chemical mixtures: can we rely 
on traditional toxicology? The Ecologist, vol. 7, no. 25.

DISCLAIMER:
E-mail correspondence to and from this address may be subject to the North Carolina Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties.