Pharmaceuticals, personal
care products, and other organic wastewater contaminants found
in 139 streams around the country made the headlines in March,
2002. Based on a U.S.
Geological Survey study published in the March 15,
2002 issue of Environmental Science and Technology (ES&T),
the presence of 82 of 95 common chemicals, including pharmaceuticals,
was discovered for the first time due to advanced analytical techniques.
While the presence of the chemicals is most likely not new, our
awareness of them is and the implications are only beginning to
be explored.
Brice E.
Erickson, associate editor of ES&T, provides further commentary
in the April 1, 2002 edition in his article, Analyzing
the Ignored Environmental Contaminants. In it
Erickson notes that researchers such as Lynn Roberts, a professor
of environmental chemistry at Johns Hopkins University’s Department
of Geography and Environmental Engineering, are now shifting their
attention to these emerging organic contaminants. Roberts’ group
is developing a list of the top 200 human prescription drugs used
in the US as a focus for designing analytical techniques for future
investigations.
Erickson
also notes that while the European Agency for the Evaluation
of
Medicinal Products proposes environmental risk assessments be
conducted on human medicinals if the predicted concentration
in
surface water is greater than 0.01 microgram/liter, the United
States FDA requires such studies only if the concentration is
greater than or equal to 1 microgram/liter, a tolerance 100 times
greater. While this level was based on acute toxicity studies,
it does not take into consideration the subtle effects of chemicals,
including drugs, that affect the endocrine system, especially
in developing embryos and the newborn, both human and animal.
Such effects have now been documented to include feminization
of males, infertility, behavioral changes such as hyperactivity,
attention deficit syndrome, rage reactions to stress, and lower
IQ.
According
to Stuart Levy of Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston,
also quoted in the Erickson article, antibiotics are the other
class of emerging contaminants of great concern, due to their
potential for developing antibiotic resistance in microorganisms.
While answers
are still elusive, the questions have been raised, insuring that
waste pharmaceuticals will come under greater scrutiny in the
future.
