[Pharmwaste] FW: 99.9% of drugs in water are from excretion

[gressitt]

One problem is much household waste in Maine is incinerated, not landfilled. I suspect likewise with WTE plants....     Stevan Gressitt, M.D.Faculty Associate, University of Maine Center on AgingFounding DirectorMaine Institute for Safe MedicineUniversity of New England, College of PharmacyDepartment of Pharmaceutical Sciences Associate Professor of Clinical PsychiatryUniversity of New England, College of Osteopathic Medicine716 Stevens Avenue Portland, Maine 04103gressitt at gmail.com Cell: 207-441-0291   ---- On Wed, 07 Jul 2010 13:33:09 -0400 Laurie Tenace <Laurie.Tenace at dep.state.fl.us> wrote ----        Several months ago a list serve member mentioned that 99.9% of active pharmaceutical ingredient surface water releases were from patient excretion. I stumbled across this reference to that number the other day:   page 69 of http://nepis.epa.gov/EPA/html/DLwait.htm?url=/Adobe/PDF/P1001AWF.PDF (or section 6.3)     EPA performed a literature search for studies or reports on pharmaceuticals disposed of in landfills. EPA found that in 2007, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) evaluated the potential for 24 active pharmaceutical ingredients to leach from MSW landfills and their potential releases to surface water (Tischler, 2007). PhRMA compared the modeled landfill leachate releases to estimates of surface water releases from disposal of unused pharmaceuticals down the drain. PhRMA selected the 24 example pharmaceutical ingredients to represent a range of sales per year in the U.S. (i.e., high quantities and low quantities) and a range of physical-chemical properties. These pharmaceutical ingredients were also evaluated in the 2002 USGS study of pharmaceuticals in surface waters (Kolpin et al., 2002).     The PhRMA study calculated that the landfill disposal pathway to surface water accounted for an average of 0.03% to 0.10% of the estimated aggregate annual surface water releases for the 24 active pharmaceutical ingredients. Therefore, the study estimated that over 99.9% of active pharmaceutical ingredient surface water releases would be due to patient excretion, not landfill disposal of unused medicines, assuming that landfill disposal were used for all unused medicine disposal. The evaluation was based on the assumption that the efficiency of the pharmaceuticals partitioning to solids in the landfill is 50% of the efficiency of partitioning in a biological wastewater treatment unit (Tischler, 2007).     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  Laurie.Tenace at dep.state.fl.us       Mercury: http://www.dep.state.fl.us/waste/categories/mercury/default.htm     Batteries: http://www.dep.state.fl.us/waste/categories/batteries/default.htm     Pharmaceuticals:   http://www.dep.state.fl.us/waste/categories/medications/default.htm  To join the Pharmwaste listserve: http://lists.dep.state.fl.us/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pharmwaste     Household Hazardous Waste:  http://www.dep.state.fl.us/waste/categories/hazardous/pages/household.htm         The Department of Environmental Protection values your feedback as a customer. DEP Secretary Michael W. Sole is committed to continuously assessing and improving the level and quality of services provided to you. Please take a few minutes to comment on the quality of service you received. Simply click on this link to the DEP Customer Survey. Thank you in advance for completing the survey.  --- Note: As a courtesy to other listserv subscribers, please post messages to the listserv in plain text format to avoid the garbling of messages received by digest recipients. --- TO SUBSCRIBE, go to: http://lists.dep.state.fl.us/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pharmwaste TO UNSUBSCRIBE, DO NOT REPLY TO THE LISTSERV. Please send an e-mail to pharmwaste-unsubscribe at lists.dep.state.fl.us -- the subject line and body of the e-mail should be blank. If you believe you may be subscribed with a different email address, please visit the subscriber listing at http://lists.dep.state.fl.us/cgi-bin/mailman/roster/pharmwaste FOR PROBLEMS: Contact List Administrator Laurie.Tenace at dep.state.fl.us SEND MAIL to the list server at: pharmwaste at lists.dep.state.fl.us
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