[NYTr] Pharmaceuticals in Water Supplies Causing Bizarre Wildlife Mutations

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

sent by rick kissell

E Magazine via Alternet - Aug 9, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/59305/

Pharmaceuticals in Water Supply Causing Bizarre Mutations to Wildlife

By Greg Peterson
E Magazine

 From inter-sex fish in the Potomac River to frog mutations in 
Wisconsin, federal officials are spending this summer studying the 
effects of pharmaceuticals such as pain killers and depression medicine 
on the environment, because the drugs have turned up in America's 
drinking water.

The cumulative effect of trace amounts of pharmaceuticals and 
personal-care products in the water on humans isn't yet known, but the 
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is taking preventative measures. 
Pharmaceuticals have already been linked to behavioral and sexual 
mutations in fish, amphibians and birds, according to EPA studies.

Better sensors have revealed that trace amounts of pharmaceuticals, 
including narcotics, birth control, antidepressants and other
controlled substances, are in the drinking water and in U.S. rivers,
lakes and streams. The growing public debate on pharmaceuticals in
water will heat up this summer as experts on both sideas of the issue
try to convince the public that it's either much ado about nothing or
another example of humans ignoring early warning signs such as deformed
frogs -- the amphibian considered the canary in the coal mine when it
comes to water issues.

The EPA suspects that part of the problem is consumers flushing old and 
unwanted drugs down toilets or drains. Americans are taking more drugs 
than ever -- especially the aging baby boomer generation. 
Pharmaceuticals were found in 80 percent of the samples taken during a 
U.S. Geological Survey and EPA study of 139 streams in 30 states. Many 
of America's wastewater treatment plants are not designed to remove 
pharmaceuticals and personal care products, the EPA says.

A 1999 (EPA and German) study of pharmaceutical and other personal-care 
products concluded the "undetectable effects on aquatic organisms are 
particularly worrisome because effects could accumulate so slowly that 
major change goes undetected until the cumulative level of these
effects finally cascades to irreversible change -- change that would
otherwise be attributed to natural adaptation or ecologic succession."

Meanwhile, federal officials continue to study the human health effects 
of the pharmaceutical compounds found in water known as endocrine 
disruptors, including possible links to neurological problems in 
children and increased incidence of some cancers. Federal officials are 
investigating a wide range of fish health problems in Cheasapeake Bay 
and its watershed. Several studies of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers 
have revealed inter-sex fish, a wide range of "abnormalities in which 
both male and female characteristics are present within the same fish."

The abnormalities include nine male smallmouth bass from the Potomac 
River near Sharpsburg, Maryland (about 60 miles upstream from 
Washington) that developed female eggs inside their sex organs. 
Inter-sex bass were also found in a study three years earlier, after 
fish kills about 170 miles upstream in the South Branch of the Potomac 
in Hardy County, West Virginia.

The suspected causes include "previously banned compounds...such as DDT 
and chlordane, natural and anthropogenic hormones, herbicides, 
fungicides, industrial chemicals and an emerging group of compounds
that may act as endocrine disruptors," according to a 2006 summary of
the various studies prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey. Other
studies have linked endocrine disruptors to possible cancer in humans.

A recent survey of "cancer in Hardy County, where some residents get 
drinking water from the South Branch, found rates of cancer of the 
liver, gallbladder, ovaries and uterus that were higher than the state 
average," according to the Washington Post.

Officials are investigating whether there is a link between the 
increased cancer rates, river water and altered fish including the 
possible connection to wastewater discharges containing trace 
pharmaceuticals. This is disconcerting to residents of metro
Washington, D.C., because the Potomac River is the main source (75
percent) of drinking water for 3.6 million residents, including the
Maryland and Virginia suburbs.

Regulatory issues won't be tackled for years to come, but the EPA isn't 
waiting for more study results before taking action. The EPA is 
educating the public and funding pharmaceutical programs by concerned 
groups and state and local government agencies.

In the short term, numerous grassroots and government pharmaceutical 
collection projects have sprung up worldwide from police stations to 
pharmacies to church parking lots.

One of the larger efforts was held in April in northern Michigan. A 
coalition called the Earth Keepers opened 19 free drop-off sites over a 
400-square-mile area, geographically the largest one-day pharmaceutical 
collection in U.S. history. Funded by the EPA, Thrivent Financial and 
others, the faith-based collection involved 400 volunteers from more 
than 140 churches and temples, university students, an American Indian 
tribe and two nonprofit environmental groups.

The nonprofit Superior Water-shed Partnership arranged the technical 
side of the collection including law enforcement officers and 
pharmacists at all collection sites because of strictly enforced
federal laws governing controlled substances with po-tential for abuse
like narcotic pain medicine.

"The Earth Keeper network is one of the most effective tools for 
addressing Great Lakes pollution," said Carl Lind-quist, director of
the Superior Watershed Partnership. "The pharmaceutical collection was
a proactive approach to a serious environmental issue that is just
getting national attention."

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the American Pharmacists 
Association recently launched "SMARxT DisPOSAL," a public education 
project about pharmaceuticals and fish that includes a traveling 
awareness show, brochures and a website for consumers and health 
professionals. The campaign will visit select U.S. cities this fall and 
be expanded in 2008.

Studies show that pharmaceuticals in the environment break down fairly 
quickly but get replenished at an alarming rate because of increased 
American drug use. America's huge healthcare network is addressing the 
problem of improperly disposed pharmaceuticals by education and "green 
chemistry" -- encouraging drug companies to develop medications that 
break down more quickly.

Hospitals for a Healthy Environment (H2E) held a pharmaceutical waste 
management summit in May for its members including 1,600 hospitals that 
run 4,000 clinics and long-term care facilities. Hazardous chemical 
incinerators are used by many hospitals to dispose of unused 
pharmaceuticals. Industry experts say these incinerators have scrubbers 
and are closely monitored, yet incineration of medical waste "is highly 
problematic" and other solutions are needed.

"Incinerators are not the solution, but we knew we had to get 
pharmaceuticals out of sewers because waste water treatment plants are 
not capturing it," says Laura Brannen, H2E executive director. Green 
chemistry and a careful reduction in the amount of pharmaceuticals used 
by hospitals are among the "lifecycle approach" to solutions that 
Brannen supports.

Hazardous chemical waste management is heavily regulated, but 
pharmaceutical cleanup hasn't kept pace, according to H2E. "The current 
EPA regulations were designed to handle 55 gallon drums of chemicals
out of industries," Brannen says. "The EPA needs to reassess their 
regulations ... they [haven't] updated the list of hazardous chemicals 
in pharmaceuticals in over 20 years. We must address the source --
using less and making what we do use as environmentally preferable as 
possible. If we are only dealing with the pharmaceutical waste at the 
back door we are going to be buried."

In communities without pharmaceutical collection programs, the EPA is 
also concerned about diversion -- unused drugs being stolen out of
trash cans. They recommend crushing pills or capsules and mixing the
drugs with cat litter or coffee grounds. The recreational use of
prescription medicines is now the second worst drug problem facing
American teenagers, according to the White House Office of National Dug
Control Policy.

The White House says 6.4 million Americans admit abusing prescription 
drugs and most say they got the pharmaceuticals from friends or 
relatives. Pharmaceutical collections are one of several tools being 
used to reduce the problem by 15 percent over three years.

"While EPA continues to research the effects of pharmaceuticals in
water sources, one thing is clear: improper drug disposal is a
prescription for environmental and societal concern," says EPA
Administrator Stephen L. Johnson. "Following these new guidelines will
protect our nation's waterways and keep pharmaceuticals out of the
hands of potential abusers."