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

Thu Jul 8 10:20:18 EDT 2010

Mark:
We have been in the sewage cessation/ abatement business (Zero Sewage) since
1975.
Actually, compared to the generation/ discharge of sewage (treated or
un-treated), the BP disaster doesn't even register on the scale.

Al White

-----Original Message-----
From: pharmwaste-bounces at lists.dep.state.fl.us
[mailto:pharmwaste-bounces at lists.dep.state.fl.us] On Behalf Of Mark
Sent: Thursday, July 08, 2010 10:12 AM
To: 'Al White'; 'BOGGS, STEVEN'; pharmwaste at lists.dep.state.fl.us
Subject: RE: [Pharmwaste] FW: 99.9% of drugs in water are from excretion

Touché! Al...it's akin to a Mini-BP oil spill but, perhaps, even on a larger
scale in view of the years it has been going on.

Mark Donahue 

-----Original Message-----
From: pharmwaste-bounces at lists.dep.state.fl.us
[mailto:pharmwaste-bounces at lists.dep.state.fl.us] On Behalf Of Al White
Sent: Thursday, July 08, 2010 10:02 AM
To: 'BOGGS, STEVEN'; pharmwaste at lists.dep.state.fl.us
Subject: RE: [Pharmwaste] FW: 99.9% of drugs in water are from excretion

Steven:
Unfortunately, connecting to sewers is the most effective way to ensure that
you are saturating all of the waters of the planet with these "WITCHES
BREWS". Sewers/ treatment systems Are very poor are recognizing and/or
removing many of these compounds.

Al White
Bio-Sun Systems
Millerton,PA

-----Original Message-----
From: pharmwaste-bounces at lists.dep.state.fl.us
[mailto:pharmwaste-bounces at lists.dep.state.fl.us] On Behalf Of BOGGS, STEVEN
Sent: Thursday, July 08, 2010 8:33 AM
To: pharmwaste at lists.dep.state.fl.us
Subject: RE: [Pharmwaste] FW: 99.9% of drugs in water are from excretion

At least in Indiana: I believe most leachate is disposed of through waste
waster treatment facilities, and some landfills are directly connected to
sewers. 

Steven Boggs
Indiana Dept. of Environmental Management Office of Pollution Prevention &
Technical Assistance 100 N. Senate Ave, MC 64-01 Indianapolis, IN 46204-2251
(317) 233-6660 or 800-988-7901
FAX (317) 234-6573
Email: sboggs at idem.in.gov
Internet: www.recycle.in.gov

________________________________________
From: Volkman, Jennifer (MPCA) [mailto:Jennifer.Volkman at state.mn.us]
Sent: Thursday, July 08, 2010 2:25 AM
To: gressitt; , "pharmwaste at lists.dep.state.fl.us
Subject: RE: [Pharmwaste] FW: 99.9% of drugs in water are from excretion

Pass! :)

________________________________________
From: gressitt [gressitt at zoho.com]
Sent: Wednesday, July 07, 2010 8:05 PM
To: Volkman, Jennifer (MPCA)
Cc: Pamela Ortner; Tenace, Laurie; ,"pharmwaste at lists.dep.state.fl.us
Subject: RE: [Pharmwaste] FW: 99.9% of drugs in water are from excretion
HAving presented at a couple Patient Adherence and Compliance conferences
over the past several years, I'd like to say that the manufacturers have a
deep abiding interest in people taking their meds and not stopping. Much
money has been spent commercially and in support of academicresearch to eke
out small percentage gains in adherence. Almost any one of those programs
would be more than all of us have spent in drug disposal. I really think
that nobody in this whole process wants the waste. 
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 20:39:48 -0400 Jennifer (MPCA) Volkman
<Jennifer.Volkman at state.mn.us> wrote ---- Regardless of PhRMA's assumptions,
anyone who has sorted pharms from collection programs knows well that an
incredible amount of drugs are completely wasted.  We have pharmatizing in
every media and taking up more space each day, desperate patients looking
for the magic pill, internet scam sales, the disconnect between insurance
dollars and prescribing practices. There are so many issues coming into
better light as we generate more data. It is just one more area where excess
generates so many problems: pollution, abuse, poisoning, millions of dollars
down the drain and up in smoke.  There is hope in this article?  I'm sure we
can turn the ship while the interest is still building.

HEALTH   | July 06, 2010
In a World of Throwaways, Making a Dent in Medical Waste By INGFEI CHEN
Untold numbers of unused, and reusable, health care supplies and equipment
end up in millions of tons of health care industry trash. 

________________________________________
From: pharmwaste-bounces at lists.dep.state.fl.us
[pharmwaste-bounces at lists.dep.state.fl.us] On Behalf Of Pamela Ortner
[portner at angelahospice.net]
Sent: Wednesday, July 07, 2010 5:36 PM
To: gressitt; Tenace, Laurie
Cc: pharmwaste at lists.dep.state.fl.us
Subject: Re: [Pharmwaste] FW: 99.9% of drugs in water are from excretion
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 at zoho.com href="mailto:gressitt at zoho.com" shape=rect
target=_blank>gressitt 
To: Laurie.Tenace at dep.state.fl.us
href="mailto:Laurie.Tenace at dep.state.fl.us" shape=rect target=_blank>Tenace,
Laurie 
Cc: pharmwaste at lists.dep.state.fl.us
href="mailto:pharmwaste at lists.dep.state.fl.us" shape=rect
target=_blank>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  

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 

--- 
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 

---
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

__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature
database 5248 (20100703) __________