[Pharmwaste] short article: A Solution to
PharmaceuticalPollution? Costs, residuals
Al White
biosun at npacc.net
Thu Jul 14 11:04:06 EDT 2011
Jack:
We have taken sewage cessation/ sequestration, natural symbiotic
"Mineralization" and infinite, self maintenance, enhancement and
"Sustainability" to the highest possible level.
At our company, we do not believe that it is safe to recycle/ re-use any
fluids and/ or solids (sludges) from any of today's waste-water/ sewage
discharge streams, sewage plant or septic tank, for any purpose . Today's
discharge streams contain more than 20,000,000 exotic, man made compounds
that comprise every imaginable product that we ingest, imbibe,
trans-dermally absorb, inhale and/or inject. These compounds are
collectively referred to as PPCP,s (pharmaceuticals & personal care
products) and EDC,s (endocrine disrupting compounds). At the present time
there in no known effective, reliable and, most importantly, sustainable
method for "mineralizing" these compounds down to their benign, re-usable
compounds of (bio-genic) carbon dioxide (zero carbon footprint) and
distilled water vapor. The long term effects of contact with humans is
totally unknown at this time. But we do know that fish and other aquatic
organisms are being feminized (no more males) from being in contact with
today's treated waste-water discharges to earth's receiving soils and water
bodies.
At our company we sequester all waste-water in a "Constructed Woodland"TM
and allow trillions of naturally occurring, aerobic organisms to
"Mineralize" (de-construct) the compounds and evaporate >> condense the
fluids/ solids creating a "Zero Sewage" condition. The system is self
sustaining, symbiotic, requiring near zero maintenance from man, can be
totally powered by solar and/or wind and possesses an infinite, self
enhancing life cycle expectancy.
Al White
607-738-2034
----- Original Message -----
From: "Price, John L. "Jack"" <John.L.Price at dep.state.fl.us>
To: "'Rita Wong'" <rwong at eciad.ca>; <pharmwaste at lists.dep.state.fl.us>
Sent: Thursday, July 14, 2011 10:45 AM
Subject: RE: [Pharmwaste] short article: A Solution to
PharmaceuticalPollution? Costs, residuals
Rita: Thanks for the summary. 2 questions pop up that this particular
research was not designed to address. I ask them rhetorically because they
are difficult to answer and the related policy questions are thorny. As we
move from bench scale processes to wastewater treatment facility scale, we
will confront these questions.
1. What additional costs for treatment equipment and treatment time, " the
process they've designed takes a bit longer than conventional treatment,"
will this treatment process entail? There are probably thousands of
treatment facilities nationwide. Infrastructure maintenance and upgrades for
all utility infrastructure is seriously underfunded as it is. There will be
hard choices if we chose to increase treatment plant costs for additional
treatment equipment/time at the expense of something else.
2. What is the fate and transport of the removed compounds when we dispose
of or land apply the treatment plant residuals? These compounds may report
back to the environment in higher concentrations or more harmful chemical
forms.
Jack
John L. (Jack) Price
Environmental Manager
Waste Reduction MS 4555
Florida Department of Environmental Protection
2600 Blair Stone Road
Tallahassee, FL 32399-2400
Phone:850.245.8751
Fax: 850.245.8811
john.l.price at dep.state.fl.us
www.dep.state.fl.us/waste
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From: pharmwaste-bounces at lists.dep.state.fl.us
[mailto:pharmwaste-bounces at lists.dep.state.fl.us] On Behalf Of Rita Wong
Sent: Friday, July 08, 2011 7:40 PM
To: pharmwaste at lists.dep.state.fl.us
Subject: [Pharmwaste] short article: A Solution to Pharmaceutical Pollution?
Hello,
Below is an article I recently wrote, and thought might be of interest to
folks on this list. If you have any suggestions as to where it should be
circulated, I'd be happy to hear from you.
Kind regards,
Rita Wong
****
A Solution to Pharmaceutical Pollution?
Today, pollution is shifting so that it is not merely something out there
(smog, tons of plastic suspended in the ocean) but also something inside
each and every one of us, spread by our shared experience of air, water, and
food. The term "body burden" refers to the hundreds of chemicals now found
in the average citizen around the world, chemicals that did not exist in our
bodies before World War II.
Some of these chemicals have been shown to cause organ damage as well as
cancer in various studies. There is no escape from pollution, but there may
be possible solutions if we pay attention.
Last year, four engineering students at Ryerson University won an award for
their final year project--designing a process to remove residual
pharmaceuticals from wastewater. As someone concerned about residual drugs
in our sewage, I was very excited to learn of their work. So, I tracked down
Reuben Fernandes, Kirill Cheiko, Charles Gilmour and Pawel Kita, and asked
them a few questions about their project.
They've all graduated. Fernandes will study public policy next year, and
Gilmour has gone on to graduate studies, where he is investigating mutagens
that form in wastewater. Cheiko is working for a consulting engineering
company designing water treatment systems for industrial and municipal
sectors, while Kita is working at an automotive company.
All of them want a chance to build a laboratory prototype to test their
design, and they recently shared their work at the Northeast Water Science
Forum in Portland, Maine, this April.
The three-stage process they developed uses commercially available
technologies--such as advanced screening, a Canadian hollow-fiber membrane
system, and a UV light/hydrogen peroxide reactor--but what is unique is that
this particular combination removes traces of pharmaceuticals. Conventional
wastewater treatment plants were not designed to handle everything from
antibiotics to cancer drugs, pain relievers, and endocrine disruptors.
They chose seven representative compounds from five pharmaceutical/EDC
families that are the most toxic and/or concentrated in wastewater, and
methodically set out to remove them. Given the hundreds, possibly
thousands of different drugs in the water, this is no mean challenge.
Cheiko would like their system to target hospital wastewater, where such
drugs are particularly concentrated. Having seen my own hospitalized family
members ingest strong anti-cancer drugs that should not even be touched, and
then flush their toxic wastes into municipal waters, I appreciate their
focus on hospitals.
Gilmour explains, "With enough time or energy, organic compounds (which
these drugs are) will keep breaking down until they reach the base level of
becoming water and carbon dioxide, which is ideally the goal." While the
process they've designed takes a bit longer than conventional treatment, it
can remove more than 90% of pharmaceuticals and endocrine disruptors.
I asked them if they'd had any surprises in doing their team project.
Cheiko says, "I was surprised that the effects of the residual
pharmaceuticals on wildlife are pretty well known, yet little is being done
to remediate the situation." Deformed, intersex fish affected by this
pollution have been found from the Potomac watershed (Washington DC, 2003)
to Puget Sound (Seattle) to Lake Mead (Las Vegas), as well as high rates of
dead fish in some cases.
Given these effects, it's logical to ask what's in store for humans too.
Gilmour argues persuasively for a precautionary principle--it being more
cost-effective to reduce these chemicals as quickly as possible, rather than
to wait to find out the costs to our health and environment. This happened
with ozone and the Montreal Protocol in 1989, which is estimated to have
saved billions of dollars in economic and environmental disruption. In light
of all the malformed fish, it is also surprising that there doesn't seem to
be more urgency among our leaders to address this very real problem.
Some of these drugs, such as endocrine disruptors, can have effects at very
low concentrations. What's more, the cumulative effect of all these
chemicals mixing and interacting remains anyone's guess. "This is a serious
problem, one that will only get worse in the foreseeable future if action is
not taken soon," says Fernandes. Perhaps more municipalities should be
talking to these guys, who are working on real solutions. While preventing
these chemicals from entering the wastewater is one real step more people
can take, I don't see our meds disappearing from hospitals anytime soon, so
this project deserves more public support.
For more information about their project, contact Reuben Fernandes at
reuben.fernandes at gmail.com
or Charles Gilmour at crgilmour at gmail.com
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