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

Wed Jul 7 18:36:51 EDT 2010

I think one needs to be careful about quoting PhRMA. The EPA did not say 99.99% of APIs come from excretion; PhRMA (Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America) did. PhRMA accounts for 80% of drug sales in the US so it might be in their best interest to say the majority of the drug comes from excretion as it might lessen liability.

Pamela Ortner, MS, RN, CHPN, COHN-S
Quality Improvement/Education Coordinator
Angela Hospice
14100 Newburgh Rd.
Livonia, Michigan 48154
(734) 953-6040

"Willing is not enough, we must act.  Knowing is not enough, we must do."
                                                                                                     Goethe                             

From: gressitt 
  To: Tenace, Laurie 
  Cc: pharmwaste at lists.dep.state.fl.us 
  Sent: Wednesday, July 07, 2010 2:31 PM
  Subject: Re: [Pharmwaste] FW: 99.9% of drugs in water are from excretion

  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 Aging
  Founding Director
  Maine Institute for Safe Medicine
  University of New England, College of Pharmacy
  Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences 
  Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry
  University of New England, College of Osteopathic Medicine
  716 Stevens Avenue 
  Portland, Maine 04103
  gressitt 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  

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