[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
Please Note:  Florida has a very broad public records law.  Most written 
communications to or from state officials regarding state business are 
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is communications and may therefore be subject to public disclosure.





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Copy the url below to a web browser to complete the DEP survey: 
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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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