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<h3><b><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";color:black'>Pharmaceutical Metabolites
Found in Wastewater</span></font></b></h3>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>19 Mar 2006</span></font><font
color=black><span style='color:black'> <br>
<input type=button value="Click to Print" onclick="return printPage()">
<br>
University at </span></font><font color=black><span style='color:black'>Buffalo</span></font><font
color=black><span style='color:black'> chemists have for the first time
identified at wastewater treatment plants the metabolites of two antibiotics
and a medical imaging agent. <br>
<br>
The data, which the UB scientists will present tomorrow at the Pittsburgh
Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy being held in </span></font><font
color=black><span style='color:black'>Orlando</span></font><font color=black><span
style='color:black'>, will allow wastewater treatment plants to begin
monitoring for these byproducts. <br>
<br>
The results also reinforce concerns about excreted pharmaceutical compounds
from wastewater systems that may end up in the water supply, potentially
resulting in adverse effects for humans and the environment. <br>
<br>
For example, antibiotics and their metabolites can significantly increase
antibiotic resistance in the population. Synthetic hormones can act as
endocrine disruptors, by mimicking or blocking hormones and disrupting the
body's normal functions. <br>
<br>
The UB presentations will be made as part of a day-long symposium to be held
March 16 on "Degradation and Treatment of Pharmaceuticals in the
Environment." It will be chaired by Diana Aga, Ph.D., assistant professor
of chemistry in UB's </span></font><font color=black><span style='color:black'>College</span></font><font
color=black><span style='color:black'> of </span></font><font color=black><span
style='color:black'>Arts</span></font><font color=black><span
style='color:black'> and Sciences and leader of the UB team. <br>
<br>
According to Aga, it has been only in the past five years that
analytical-chemistry techniques have become sufficiently affordable and
practical to allow researchers to detect pharmaceuticals and their metabolites
efficiently at the parts-per-billion and parts-per-trillion range. <br>
<br>
"Current wastewater treatment processes are optimized to reduce nitrates
and phosphates and dissolved organic carbon, the major pollutants of concern in
domestic wastes," said Aga. "However, treatment facilities don't
monitor or measure organic microcontaminants like residues of pharmaceuticals
and active ingredients of personal care products." <br>
<br>
Aga said that most previous studies looked for drugs' active ingredients in
treated wastewater. <br>
<br>
"But now we are doing laboratory studies to characterize what these
ingredients degrade into during wastewater processing," she added.
"The lesson is that not detecting active ingredients in the effluent
doesn't mean the water is clean. The pharmaceuticals we monitored are not
degraded completely in the treatment plants; most of them are just transformed
into other compounds that still may have adverse ecotoxicological
effects." <br>
<br>
The UB researchers have identified the metabolites for sulfamethoxazole and
trimethoprim, commonly prescribed antibiotics, and for a synthetic estrogen, a
common ingredient in birth control pills and in hormone replacement therapy. <br>
<br>
In research published in January in Analytical Chemistry, the UB chemists also
found that iopromide, a pharmaceutical imaging agent that patients consume
before taking MRI tests, is barely degraded in the conventional activated
sludge process. <br>
<br>
However, they found that when conditions in biological treatment systems are
optimized for nitrogen removal, this imaging agent does degrade. <br>
<br>
Aga said that these findings have important implications because it means that
wastewater treatment processes can be optimized to remove persistent
pharmaceuticals in wastewater. <br>
<br>
The UB researchers obtained samples during fall and spring from local
wastewater treatment plants in the </span></font><font color=black><span
style='color:black'>Western New York</span></font><font color=black><span
style='color:black'> towns of </span></font><font color=black><span
style='color:black'>Amherst</span></font><font color=black><span
style='color:black'>, </span></font><font color=black><span style='color:black'>East
Aurora</span></font><font color=black><span style='color:black'>, </span></font><font
color=black><span style='color:black'>Lackawanna</span></font><font
color=black><span style='color:black'>, </span></font><font color=black><span
style='color:black'>Tonawanda</span></font><font color=black><span
style='color:black'> and </span></font><font color=black><span
style='color:black'>Holland</span></font><font color=black><span
style='color:black'>, representing suburban, urban and rural areas. <br>
<br>
They sampled effluent before and after each water-treatment stage to examine
relative efficiencies of each treatment process. <br>
<br>
Aga noted that based on the team's findings, a combination of biological,
chemical and physical processing techniques probably will be the most
successful to remove completely pharmaceutical compounds and their metabolites
from wastewater. <br>
<br>
"Originally, it was hoped that during the disinfection process, through
chlorination or ultraviolet techniques, removal of the drugs that we studied
would be enhanced, but, in fact, neither of these is effective," she said.
<br>
<br>
The researchers did find, however, that that most wastewater treatment processes
are effective in significantly degrading some common antibiotics, such as
ciprofloxacin and tetracycline. <br>
<br>
### <br>
<br>
The UB research was funded by the National Science Foundation. <br>
<br>
The University at </span></font><font color=black><span style='color:black'>Buffalo</span></font><font
color=black><span style='color:black'> is a premier research-intensive public
university, the largest and most comprehensive campus in the State University
of New York. <br>
<br>
Contact: Ellen Goldbaum<br>
goldbaum@buffalo.edu<br>
<a href="http://www.buffalo.edu/" target="_blank">University at Buffalo</a> </span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
color:black'>Article URL: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=39711</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;color:navy'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'>Deborah L. DeBiasi</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy;font-weight:bold'>Email:
dldebiasi@deq.virginia.gov</span></font></b></p>
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style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'>WEB site address: </span></font><font
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'>Virginia</span></font><font size=2
color=navy><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'> </span></font><font
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Quality</span></font></p>
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