[Pharmwaste] Calls for more monitoring of drugs and chemicals - AP take on Congressional Hearing

[DeBiasi,Deborah]

Calls for more monitoring of drugs and chemicals
By JEFF DONN - 22 hours ago 

WASHINGTON (AP) - Pollution experts pressed a congressional panel
Thursday for a new national approach that monitors the country's waters
more broadly for the presence and impact of hundreds of recently
detected contaminants from pharmaceuticals to fire retardants.

U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas, chairwoman of the House
Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment, opened her panel's
hearing with a warning. A former nurse, Johnson said the presence of
these contaminants makes her "question just how safe our waters actually
are - especially to human health over the long term."

Equipped with more refined tests, researchers in recent years have
discovered the existence of a complex brew of unregulated contaminants
beyond conventional industrial and agricultural pollutants. These
low-concentration, emerging contaminants include discarded and excreted
pharmaceuticals, vitamins and cosmetics, as well as some pesticides and
industrial compounds.

Risks are poorly understood, though there is evidence that
pharmaceuticals and hormone-like compounds can harm aquatic life.
Preliminary research indicates that some waterborne drugs also may
promote antibiotic-resistant germs and impair the workings of human
cells in the laboratory.

Some experts testified to the panel that the Clean Water Act, which aims
to clean up pollution in rivers and streams, may not be equal to the
task for a host of newly recognized pollutants occurring in complex
mixtures.

Environmental researcher Peter L. deFur of Virginia Commonwealth
University suggested the Clean Water Act could be reshaped to "require
monitoring and reporting of all chemicals in discharges, regardless of
the identity and chemical nature." A limited number of pollutants are
monitored now.

David P. Littell, Maine's commissioner of Environmental Protection, said
"it is probably more effective to reduce or prevent substances of high
concern from entering the waste stream" than relying on the
chemical-by-chemical water quality standards of the Clean Water Act.

Drugs have raised special concerns, because they are designed to affect
the human body at low concentrations and because their use and presence
in waterways is so widespread. In a continuing investigation, The
Associated Press has reported that at least 46 million Americans are
supplied with drinking water that has tested positive for traces of
pharmaceuticals. The stories, which began appearing in March, have
prompted a national flurry of water testing and federal and local
hearings like the one convened by Johnson.

Pharmaceuticals in water are blamed mostly on unmetabolized drugs
excreted by humans and animals, then flushed into sewage systems
connected to streams and rivers. However, the AP reported earlier this
week that hospitals and long-term care centers intentionally discard an
estimated 250 million pounds a year of unused pharmaceuticals and
tainted packaging - and much of those drugs also go directly down drains
toward water supplies.

In an interview before the hearing, subcommittee member U.S. Rep.
Candice Miller, R-Mich., said the Environmental Protection Agency ought
to impose controls on healthcare facilities that dump unused
pharmaceuticals down the drain. "I think we should step up and make sure
this is not happening," said Miller.

But she put forward a less ambitious bill in July. If adopted, it would
only require the EPA to assemble a task force to craft recommendations
for safer disposal of unused pharmaceuticals. The EPA is already
following its own approach with a study of whether such restrictions are
needed.

A separate bill proposed by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., would make
the EPA further study pharmaceuticals and personal care products in the
water; how better to monitor them and their risks; and how to clean them
up.

Non-voting Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-Washington, D.C., pleaded
for more government action. Decrying the existence of male fish that
develop eggs in their sex organs, a situation blamed on hormone-like
contaminants, she wondered aloud "how much we need to know before it
occurs to us that something needs to be done."

Ben Grumbles, the EPA's top water official, balked at any immediate,
sweeping upgrade of water standards. He told the panel more research and
evaluation are needed now.

However, in an interview later, he said critics are correct to question
whether the existing regulatory mechanism can handle the complex
mixtures being detected in waters.

"It may be that there needs to be a more effective way to deal with the
mixtures," he added. 

The AP National Investigative Team can be reached at investigate (at)
ap.org

Deborah L. DeBiasi
Email:   dldebiasi at deq.virginia.gov
WEB site address:  www.deq.virginia.gov
Virginia Department of Environmental Quality
Office of Water Permit Programs
Industrial Pretreatment/Toxics Management Program
PPCPs, EDCs, and Microconstituents
Mail:          P.O. Box 1105, Richmond, VA  23218 (NEW!)
Location:  629 E. Main Street, Richmond, VA  23219
PH:         804-698-4028
FAX:      804-698-4032