271M Lbs Of Pharmaceuticals In Our Water

AP Investigation: Drugmakers, Other Manufacturers Legally Releasing Chemicals Into Waterways

(AP)  Two common industrial chemicals that are also pharmaceuticals - the antiseptics phenol and hydrogen peroxide - account for 92 percent of the 271 million pounds identified as coming from drugmakers and other manufacturers. Both can be toxic and both are considered to be ubiquitous in the environment.

However, the list of 22 includes other troubling releases of chemicals that can be used to make drugs and other products: 8 million pounds of the skin bleaching cream hydroquinone, 3 million pounds of nicotine compounds that can be used in quit-smoking patches, 10,000 pounds of the antibiotic tetracycline hydrochloride. Others include treatments for head lice and worms.

Residues are often released into the environment when manufacturing equipment is cleaned.

A small fraction of pharmaceuticals also leach out of landfills where they are dumped. Pharmaceuticals released onto land include the chemo agent fluorouracil, the epilepsy medicine phenytoin and the sedative pentobarbital sodium. The overall amount may be considerable, given the volume of what has been buried - 572 million pounds of the 22 monitored drugs since 1988.

In one case, government data shows that in Columbus, Ohio, pharmaceutical maker Boehringer Ingelheim Roxane Inc. discharged an estimated 2,285 pounds of lithium carbonate - which is considered slightly toxic to aquatic invertebrates and freshwater fish - to a local wastewater treatment plant between 1995 and 2006. Company spokeswoman Marybeth C. McGuire said the pharmaceutical plant, which uses lithium to make drugs for bipolar disorder, has violated no laws or regulations. McGuire said all the lithium discharged, an annual average of 190 pounds, was lost when residues stuck to mixing equipment were washed down the drain.

Pharmaceutical company officials point out that active ingredients represent profits, so there's a huge incentive not to let any escape. They also say extremely strict manufacturing regulations - albeit aimed at other chemicals - help prevent leakage, and that whatever traces may get away are handled by onsite wastewater treatment.

"Manufacturers have to be in compliance with all relevant environmental laws," said Alan Goldhammer, a scientist and vice president at the industry trade group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

Goldhammer conceded some drug residues could be released in wastewater, but stressed "it would not cause any environmental issues because it was not a toxic substance at the level that it was being released at."

Several big drugmakers were asked this simple question: Have you tested wastewater from your plants to find out whether any active pharmaceuticals are escaping, and if so what have you found?

No drugmaker answered directly.

"Based on research that we have reviewed from the past 20 years, pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities are not a significant source of pharmaceuticals that contribute to environmental risk," GlaxoSmithKline said in a statement.

AstraZeneca spokeswoman Kate Klemas said the company's manufacturing processes "are designed to avoid, or otherwise minimize the loss of product to the environment" and thus "ensure that any residual losses of pharmaceuticals to the environment that do occur are at levels that would be unlikely to pose a threat to human health or the environment."

One major manufacturer, Pfizer Inc., acknowledged that it tested some of its wastewater - but outside the United States.

The company's director of hazard communication and environmental toxicology, Frank Mastrocco, said Pfizer has sampled effluent from some of its foreign drug factories. Without disclosing details, he said the results left Pfizer "confident that the current controls and processes in place at these facilities are adequately protective of human health and the environment."

It's not just the industry that isn't testing.

[erasmus111]

Even doctors tell you to flush your expired medicine.

Posted by observer2020 at 10:50 AM : Apr 20, 2009

Where I live, we are told NEVER to flush medicine down the toilet. We are told to take it to the pharmacies so they can dispose of them.

[erasmus111]

I don't know what other people will do, But I intend to pursue filtering my drinking and cooking water. I probably can't be sure to filter all these contaminants, but doing something is better than doing nothing.
A little peace of mind is better than great doubt.

Posted by grumpygeezer at 5:22 AM : Apr 20, 2009

Our water is constantly being tested and is supposedly alright to drink, but I still won't drink it because I don't feel like ingesting chlorine and all the other chemicals that are in it. I have a separate water tap that is filtered.

[SteveDeibele]

The pharmaceuticals and chemicals that are used to create the pharmaceuticals have a number of reasons for being in our water. Some chemical contents are the result of residues on the production vessels, others are the result of intermediate processing steps, and still others are certainly the result of disposal. The rules governing chemical waste and disposal will continually evolve as technology changes and as the public sentiment changes. From a scientific perspective, the "cocktail" mixes of chemicals can play highly influential roles in human and animal healths. Health responses to environmental changes can be extremely nonlinear, so the most appropriate approach is to put GREAT effort in minimizing chemical dumping into the environment. The pharmaceutical and chemical industries should not self-regulate, as time and again we can find examples where a business looks out for its own immediate interests, even at the expenses of the public. The article has insufficient information to make many critical-thinking conclusions. But clearly, 271 million pounds is a big deal, especially when you know the science and can reasonbly assume that the concentration of these pharmaceuticals are very nonuniformly distributed. The concentrations, in PPM, PPB, PPT, are also scientifically important. It is completely incorrect to say our uncontrolled, unrepeatable "cocktail" exposure to these chemicals makes us healthier. You don't have to look very hard to find case after case where chemical cocktails caused health problems for humanity, domesticated animals, and wildlife. Prevention of chemical pollutants in the environment is the key; regulatory changes to chemical and pharmaceutical production and disposal are needed.

Dr. Steve Deibele
Kiel, WI

[weedapeapl]

you better trot on over to Fox for the REAL news.
Posted by jimsmename at 10:58 AM : Apr 20, 2009

I've never seen their site.

What's the address?

[weedapeapl]

Even doctors tell you to flush your expired medicine.
Posted by observer2020 at 10:50 AM : Apr 20, 2009

If you've ever seen the "meds room" at a nursing home, they actually have a toilet installed up high at countertop level for disposing of expired meds - and the meds of residents who have "expired."

They are REQUIRED BY LAW to flush excess meds.

[observer2020]

Amazing what is flushed nowadays. Even doctors tell you to flush your expired medicine. Remember people....we ALL live downstream. They need to devise a "safe" way of disposing of our chemicals, medicines, etc., before we all turn into one-eyed, six-legged mutants.

[weedapeapl]

The article mentions the weight of the drugs, however no mentioning of the weight of the water in the US. Unless such information is available, how is someone able to calculate the ppm
Posted by jwesel1 at 7:02 AM : Apr 20, 2009


271 MILLION pounds of Drugs were released into waterways used for drinking water and you want to split hairs? No thanks!
Posted by skyk-2009 at 8:33 AM : Apr 20, 2009

Yah! How dare you confuse Sky King with facts!!!!

Don't you know? Liberals are ALLERGIC to facts!!!

How are is the liberal media going to create another hysterical scare story if you get bogged down with FACTS????/


LOL!!!

[louiville2]

Hey thats why I flush twice because I know Berkley is somewhere down stream.

[calgal4]

Drugs in the water, hormones and antibiotics in our meat, caffeine/guarana/ephedra in our drinks, pollution in our air....it's a miracle we're not all pychos with large breasts, lungs, and gonads, who have full immunity from everything!!!

[txlakeside]

My god there sure are a lot of STUPID folks questioning a story they should be worried about! One idiot actually posted that Europeans are healthier because they have pharmaceuticals in their water .... ROFLMAO! And another trying to figure out PPM based on weight when it is actually figured on total mass (volume x density) ! The story had nothing to do with PPM rather total pounds dumped! Dumb as dirt!

[skyk-2009]

This is the one of the most unscientifically written articles. The article mentions the weight of the drugs, however no mentioning of the weight of the water in the US. Unless such information is available, how is someone able to calculate the ppm (parts per million) of drugs in the water to make an intelligent guess. If the concentration of drugs is less than .5 ppm, it poses no hazard.
Posted by jwesel1 at 7:02 AM : Apr 20, 2009

271 MILLION pounds of Drugs were released into waterways used for drinking water and you want to split hairs? No thanks!

[rf35]

To save some people time, the answer is NO, I do not work for a pharmaceutical company. That said, I had a few thoughts after reading this. First, this dumping is not new...it's been going on for decades. Newer drugs may be added, some older ones stopped, but drugs of some sort have been getting into the water supply since pharmaceutical manufacturing began. The only thing new is the tests that are sensitive enough to detect the miniscule amounts being found. I'm sure that in high enough concentrations these drug combinations would be deadly, but we're not talking about high concentrations; we're talking about trace amounts so small that they couldn't be detected at all until recently. For perspective, in the last available study I could find, Americans withdrew 341 billion gallons of water per day from fresh water supplies. To put it another way, over 2.8 trillion pounds of water. Each day. Figure out the total fresh water yourself, as I'm tired of counting zeros.
Second, so what if there are drugs in the water. It saves money on prescriptions and that'll REALLY torque off the pharmaceutical companies!! The main reason Europeans are generally healthier than Americans must be because they're pharmaceutical waste is more concentrated in their drinking water supplies.

[jonesjep]

This same report was done from a scientific perspective. Not the blatant anti-pharmaceutical, CBS perspective. PEOPLE are the ones dumping the drugs into the system. People who purchase the drugs flush them down the toilet when they no longer need them or they expire. Pharmaceutical companies do not dump drugs. That is a idiotic conclusion. That would be like dumping gold down the toilet.

[sly_64]

One of the biggest misconceptions about drug warnings: "Avoid driving until you know how this medication will affect you." Hello, if the drug will make you feel weird, chances are you can get a DUI on it regardless if you're used to it's effect on you.

[presjfk]

" the fact that this happens is one of the most insane news items i've ever read. how is ANY releasing of industrial compounds into rivers, lakes and ocean legal?
Posted by SugarMtn "

Stop applying common sense and it becomes clear. The companies that are releasing these chemicals own the government. They make the rules because they have the money. That is all there is to it. Notice how companies have not been held to account for their pollution from the beginnings of our industrial revolution.

[SugarMtn]

the fact that this happens is one of the most insane news items i've ever read. how is ANY releasing of industrial compounds into rivers, lakes and ocean legal?

[jwesel1]

This is the one of the most unscientifically written articles. The article mentions the weight of the drugs, however no mentioning of the weight of the water in the US. Unless such information is available, how is someone able to calculate the ppm (parts per million) of drugs in the water to make an intelligent guess. If the concentration of drugs is less than .5 ppm, it poses no hazard.

[afmcalax]

Another great example of how American style capitalism hurts Americans. With the huge profits the pharmaceutical companies pull down you would think they would be good corporate citizens and not pollute America's waterways with their medicines. But that would decrease their bonuses. That they are making society sicker and causing untold harm to the people that drink this contaminated water does not concern them. What are these medicines in the water doing to our health?

Who wants to bet that the clean-up for this will once again become the burden of the American tax payer? That is why our economic model is losing favor throughout the world ... there seems to do so little good it does for society; while reaping unearning wealth for so few.

[J_G_H]

It is cheaper to solve pollution problems at the source, where they are concentrated. Corporations plead high costs, but by releasing their toxins into the environment, they become nearly impossible to deal with, and pass the costs to the general population in illnes and genetic damage. There is no excuse for this and ther is certainly no excse for politicians who are dumb enough to buy the corporate arguments. Sometimes, as with lithium, there might even be money in recycling the materials. Besides psychiatric medicine, lithium is used in the batteries we hope will powere electric and hybrid cars.

[swin5]

When a people mindlessly use their rivers for their sewers, what do you expect?