[Pharmwaste] A "minute" move in the right direction to keep RX out of the H2O

Wed Jan 13 14:44:20 EST 2010

But what are we going to do about the even bigger danger of flushing/
draining the urine, feces and millions of cleaning and personal care
products??

The unused "Meds" are barely the tip of the iceberg.

Al White

From: pharmwaste-bounces at lists.dep.state.fl.us
[mailto:pharmwaste-bounces at lists.dep.state.fl.us] On Behalf Of Massoomi,
Fred
Sent: Wednesday, January 13, 2010 2:18 PM
To: Hyun, Karen; Mannina, George J.; pharmwaste at lists.dep.state.fl.us
Subject: [Pharmwaste] A move in the right direction to keep RX out of the
H2O

Health facilities, NY settle over drug-flushing

Posted: Jan 12, 2010 12:11 PM CST Tuesday, January 12, 2010 1:11 PM
ESTUpdated: Jan 13, 2010 4:37 AM CST Wednesday, January 13, 2010 5:37 AM EST

By MARCUS FRANKLIN
Associated Press Writer 

NEW YORK (AP) - New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced a
settlement Tuesday with five health care facilities that flushed
pharmaceutical waste into the New York City watersheds.

Cuomo reached agreements with the two hospitals and three nursing homes that
disposed of painkillers, antibiotics, antidepressants, hormones and other
pharmaceuticals through toilets and sinks and into the watersheds, his
office said. The flushes potentially put about 9 million people's drinking
water at risk, Cuomo said.

The three watersheds - the Croton, Catskill and Delaware - cover nearly 2000
square miles and drain into reservoirs and lakes providing drinking water to
New York City's roughly 8 million residents and another 1 million in several
northern counties - nearly half the state's 19.4 million residents.

The hospitals and nursing homes are located within the watershed in Putnam
and Delaware counties north of New York City.

Although such facilities are allowed to flush many - but not all - drugs
through toilets and sinks, the nursing homes and hospitals nonetheless
agreed to stop disposing of all drugs in that manner to protect the
watersheds, Cuomo said.

Instead, the facilities will give the drugs to waste management facilities,
he said.

The attorney general's investigation of the facilities on the watersheds was
prompted in part by a series of stories by The Associated Press in 2008 that
revealed the drinking water of at least 51 million Americans contains minute
concentrations of a multitude of drugs, said Katherine Kennedy, Cuomo's
special deputy attorney general for environmental protection.

Water utilities, replying to an AP questionnaire, acknowledged the presence
of dozens of drugs in their supplies. State tests of New York's watersheds
in 2008 that also found trace amounts of drugs also led to Cuomo's
investigation, Kennedy said.

Cuomo called the practice "an emerging threat" to New York's drinking water
supply and said the federal Environmental Protection Agency has identified
pharmaceuticals as "contaminants of emerging concern."

The attorney general said waste pharmaceuticals flushed down toilets or
sinks end up at sewage treatment plants or septic systems that aren't
designed to treat such wastes and don't remove some pharmaceuticals.

Also, Cuomo said, drinking water treatment plants, including those that
chlorinate drinking water, don't consistently remove pharmaceuticals.

"The nine million people who get their water from the New York City
watershed enjoy some of the cleanest, safest and best water in the world,"
said Cuomo. "We need to make sure it stays that way. These...settlements
provide a new model to implement immediate and sensible precautions to keep
waste drugs out of the drinking water supply."

Parties to the settlement were: Putnam Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in
Holmes in Putnam County; O'Connor Hospital and Countryside Care Center, both
in Delhi in Delaware County; and Margaretville Memorial Hospital and
Mountainside Residential Care Center in Margaretville, also in Delaware
County.

Telephone messages seeking comment from the five facilities weren't
immediately returned Tuesday.

Cuomo's investigation initially found a range of state and federal
violations at the health care facilities, including failure to properly
label, store, track and dispose of pharmaceuticals, Cuomo's office said.

Each facility was fined between $3,500 and $12,000 for various violations,
including flushing drugs, said Richard Bamberger, a spokesman for Cuomo.

Cuomo's office also is investigating 10 other health care facilities on the
watershed, officials said.

Firouzan 'Fred' Massoomi, Pharm.D., FASHP

Nebraska Methodist Hospital

Pharmacy Operations Coordinator

Department of Pharmacy Services

8303 Dodge St.

Omaha, NE  68114

 <mailto:fred.massoomi at nmhs.org> fred.massoomi at nmhs.org

(402) 354-4340 office            (402) 354-3139 fax

A proud supporter of the Multiple Sclerosis Society

P Think Green & Think before YOU print. 

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