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<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2014/12/18/4145868.htm<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Drug pollution risk 'a global responsibility'<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Thursday, 18 December 2014
<a href="http://www.abc.net.au/profiles/content/s2193248.htm?site=science"><span style="color:blue">Anna Salleh</span></a><br>
ABC<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">
<hr size="1" width="100%" noshade="" style="color:#A0A0A0" align="center">
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<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/201412/r1364243_19197787.jpg"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:blue;text-decoration:none"><img border="0" width="700" height="467" id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image001.jpg@01D01B62.38109460" alt="pharmaceutical company"></span></a><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">A growing percentage of the world's generic drugs is made in plants like this one in India (iStockphoto:
Ajay Verma)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Related Stories<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<ul type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2005/03/17/1324969.htm"><span style="color:blue">Antibiotics flushed into waterways</span></a>, Science Online, 17 Mar 2005<o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1">
<span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2009/06/12/2594441.htm"><span style="color:blue">Call for control of nano-silver use</span></a>, Science Online, 20 Oct 2009<o:p></o:p></span></li></ul>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Pharmaceutical legacy Rich countries should help poorer countries deal with the risk posed by pharmaceutical
contamination of the environment, says an Australian expert. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Dr Rai Kookana, an environmental chemist with the
<a href="http://www.csiro.au/" target="_blank"><span style="color:blue">CSIRO</span></a>, made the comments following the release of a study published in a recent issue of
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2013.0586" target="_blank"><i><span style="color:blue">Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B</span></i></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">The study is the first to compare the risk of pollution from drugs, including antibiotics, anti-inflammatories
and antidepressants, in high-income and lower-income countries around the world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Kookana and colleagues gathered data on factors such as demographics, the manufacture and consumption
of pharmaceuticals, and the quality of waste and wastewater systems to assess the potential risk from pharmaceuticals in 17 countries.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">They found that countries like China and India are at greater risk than higher-income countries,
of groundwater, land and river contamination from the active ingredients of drugs.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Drug manufacturing<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Kookana says poor waste and waste water systems are key factors contributing to pollution in lower-income
countries.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">"Historically, when drugs are brought on to the market, the environment doesn't come into the picture
at all. But obviously the drugs find their way into the environment through the waste stream," he says.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Major "point sources" of contamination are drug manufacturing facilities, which are increasingly
being moved to poorer countries, where labour costs are lower, he adds.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">"There is some evidence from China and India that effluents from drug manufacturing plants contain
high concentrations of antibiotics and other drugs including antidepressants and NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs)," says Kookana.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">"The rivers and lakes receiving these effluents have been found to be contaminated with these drugs."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">He says a 2007 Swedish study found drug concentrations in a river adjacent to one drug manufacturing
area exceeded the therapeutic levels in humans.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Drugged vultures<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Previous research has shown that some pharmaceuticals are known to persist in the environment and
there is evidence they affect animals, says Kookana.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">For example, a 2004 paper in
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature02317" target="_blank"><i><span style="color:blue">Nature</span></i></a> blamed a crash in vulture numbers on the Indian subcontinent on pollution from the anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">"There is also some evidence that antidepressants such as fluoxetine can cause behavioural problems
in fish, water fleas and birds," he adds.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">And his own research has shown the mood stabiliser and anti-epileptic drug carbamazepine is taken
up by plants.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Kookana says there is a desperate need for more data on the effect of such pollution in low to middle-income
countries.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">"Nearly 60 per cent of the generic drugs of the world are produced in China and India," says Kookana.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">"We are interlinked internationally," he adds. "We have a responsibility to help some of the developing
countries to better understand the effects of these drugs in the environment."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Australia not immune<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">The researchers found Australia had a comparatively low risk of pollution from pharmaceuticals, but
Kookana says there is still reason for concern.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">"Our population is ageing rapidly so our reliance on pharmaceuticals is increasing," he says.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">For this reason, the government funds a
<a href="http://www.returnmed.com.au/" target="_blank"><span style="color:blue">program</span></a> to collect and dispose of unwanted and out-of-date medicines to stop pharmaceutical pollution at source.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">But Kookana also thinks regulatory agencies need to take Europe's lead and require manufacturers
to consider the potential ecological impacts of their drugs.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span lang="EN-AU" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">"I would like to see regulatory agencies in Australia give consideration to the ecological footprint
of a given pharmaceutical active ingredient," says Kookana.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Laurie Tenace<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Environmental Specialist<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Waste Reduction Section<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Florida Department of Environmental Protection<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">2600 Blair Stone Road, MS 4555<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Tallahassee, FL 32399-2400<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">850.245.8759<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Laurie.Tenace@dep.state.fl.us<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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