[Pharmwaste] Aquatic animals diets could expose them to drugs at levels up to 50% of prescribed human doses.

[Ed Gottlieb]

Dear Pretreatment & Pharmwaste folks,

This excellent NPR story references quite a few studies of emerging contaminants in aquatic and other organisms.
It also promotes drug takeback programs as, "One major way to prevent pharmaceuticals from getting into waterways..."!

https://www.npr.org/2019/05/02/719600999/traces-of-cocaine-pesticides-detected-in-u-k-shrimp

Story excerpts :
"Pharmaceuticals and personal care products and pesticides and these types of illicit drugs have been detected in surface waters all over the world, because when we use them, our waste isn't always treated properly, and so they come out in rivers and streams," Emma Rosi, an aquatic ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies who has done similar studies, tells NPR...
"What's very worrying is we don't know what the effects are, the ecological effects."
 &
Rosi concluded in a paper published last year that more than 60 pharmaceutical compounds could be detected in aquatic invertebrates and spiders in streams near Melbourne, Australia. In the Nature Communications study, her team also found that animals higher up the food chain like platypuses and gray trout "could in principle be exposed to certain drugs in their diets at levels comparable (up to 50%) to prescribed human doses."

&
The mix of pharmaceutical traces found in water sources is worrying for the same reason that doctors are careful about not mixing certain drugs in humans, Rosi says — because they could have adverse reactions.

"I've done research in lab settings where we have exposed aquatic organisms like invertebrates to various types of pharmaceuticals," Rosi adds, saying that they have found that the compounds can disrupt growth rates and have other negative effects.

One major way to prevent pharmaceuticals from getting into waterways is to properly dispose of them through a drug takeback program, rather than flushing them down the toilet. The EPA has guidelines for disposing of medications here, and you can find a public disposal location for pharmaceuticals here.



Ed Gottlieb
Chair, Tompkins County Coalition for Safe Medication Disposal
Industrial Pretreatment Coordinator
Ithaca Area Wastewater Treatment Facility
525 3rd Street
Ithaca, NY  14850
(607) 273-8381<tel:(607)%20273-8381>

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