[Pharmwaste] Putting water testing on the fast track article (U Mass)

[Tenace, Laurie]

Happy New Year to everyone on the Pharmwaste list serve! 2009 - a new year
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Laurie

http://www.boston.com/business/healthcare/articles/2009/01/05/putting_water_t
esting_on_the_fast_track/

Putting water testing on the fast track
Until March, David A. Reckhow worked in near anonymity as a professor and
researcher in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at the
University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Reckhow studies drinking water, and it was in March when news outlets picked
up on what he and other researchers had known for years: Tiny doses of
prescription medications, whether through excretion or simply by being
flushed down the toilet, eventually end up in drinking water supplies across
the United States.

"I'm not sure why it became such a big deal at that time," said Reckhow, who
has been studying the issue for a decade. "You need to balance it against a
lifetime of risks. In the big picture, it's probably not something to lose
sleep over, but at the same time, we want to know more about the issue."

Three months ago, Reckhow and other UMass researchers' efforts to learn about
the compounds being formed as drugs slip into drinking water supplies
received a major boost from Waters Corp., which allowed them to use one of
its AquaAnalysis machines. The machine is able to measure trace amounts of
chemicals in a matter of minutes. Before, conducting such tests would take
Reckhow and his team up to eight hours.

Jeff Tarmy, a spokesman for Waters, said the Milford company is targeting
large utility companies which would want to undertake the kind of analysis
Reckhow is doing in the labs of their own facilities as it looks to market
AquaAnalysis. The product, with a price tag of more than $300,000, is also
being marketed to research organizations, including universities and private
firms, that would do the analyses for smaller water companies on a contract
basis.

"This is for anyone that is looking at getting answers faster, and looking at
getting answers with fewer resources," Tarmy said.

A study released last month by the US Geological Survey found low levels of
130 manmade chemicals in streams and waterbeds. After treatment, about a
third of the chemicals remained in processed drinking water.

Utilities are not currently required to monitor for the chemicals identified
in the study. The most prevalent chemicals are pharmaceuticals and the
compounds that are formed when the drugs interact with each other as well as
naturally occurring chemicals. The study, USGS officials said, was not meant
to raise alarm, but to identify prevalent chemicals in certain areas of the
country and help regulators fine-tune monitoring rules.

Reckhow is studying the water supplies of 15 public utilities, including the
Massachusetts Water Resources Authority. Despite state-of-the art processing,
most water-treatment facilities don't eliminate all of the pharmaceuticals
entering the public drinking supply.

Reckhow's work will help utilities understand how to more efficiently remove
drug traces from drinking water, as well as see what compounds are formed
when chemicals interact, and what impact they may have on humans. The
compounds have also been shown to cause problems with fish and other marine
life, Reckhow said.

"The amounts are small, but during a lifetime of exposure, people are coming
into contact with hundreds of pharmaceuticals," he said. "It's important that
we try to understand the long-term effect on people, as well as what happens
when these compounds come into contact with one another."

The advantages of the AquaAnalysis machine - which Reckhow has nicknamed
Betsy - are readily apparent. The size of the sample needed is just a few
ounces, compared with the liters researchers once needed. While Reckhow is
mimicking how the plants treat water in his lab, other settings and studies
may require a utility to ship samples of treated water to the lab. The
smaller size of the samples needed lowers shipping costs.

But more than anything, Betsy provides Reckhow the speed that was
unimaginable just a few years ago. That means researchers will be able to
study a wider range of samples in a shorter amount of time and begin
assisting utilities in finding solutions.

"We're creating compounds that are not naturally occurring in our drinking
water," Reckhow said.

"The question we need to answer is 'How are we going to get rid of them?' "


Laurie Tenace
Environmental Specialist
Waste Reduction Section
Florida Department of Environmental Protection
2600 Blair Stone Rd., MS 4555
Tallahassee FL 32399-2400
P: 850.245.8759
F: 850.245.8811

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