Is Your Glass of Water A Cocktail of This…?
Source: Chicago Tribune
Aug. 06–Trace amounts of sex hormones, prescription drugs, flame retardants and herbicides are being detected in treated drinking water pumped to more than 7 million people in Chicago and its suburbs.
In the latest round of testing prompted by a 2008 Tribune investigation, city officials discovered that more than two dozen pharmaceutical drugs and other unregulated chemicals pass through Chicago’s massive treatment plants.
Little is known about potential health effects from drinking drug-contaminated water, but scientists and regulators increasingly are concerned about long-term exposure, even at very low levels.
“We need to start addressing the cumulative effects that these low-dose exposures could be having on people,” said Thomas Burke, associate dean of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
“There are no quick solutions,” said Burke, who chaired a National Academy of Sciences committee that called for a dramatic overhaul of the way the U.S. regulates toxic chemicals. “But we need a new approach that is more responsive to emerging science.”
Like other cities, Chicago must notify the public if its drinking water contains regulated contaminants, including lead, pesticides and harmful bacteria. There is no such requirement if pharmaceuticals and other unregulated substances are detected.
Annual water quality reports mailed last month to people in Chicago and the suburbs noted that the city is testing for substances that aren’t on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s list of regulated contaminants. A list of results obtained by the Tribune is dated April 11 but wasn’t posted on the city’s website until after the newspaper asked for it last week.
City officials were prompted to start testing for the substances after the Tribune found trace amounts of pharmaceuticals, residue from personal care products and unregulated industrial chemicals in local tap water. Substances found in the city’s latest tests include the sex hormones testosterone and progesterone; gemfibrozil, a prescription cholesterol-fighting drug; and DEET, the active ingredient in bug spray.
The tests also found perfluorooctane sulfonate, an ingredient in Scotchgard stain-fighting coatings; bisphenol A, a hormone-like plastics additive; and tris (2-butoxyethyl) phosphate, a flame retardant chemical.
“Our very awareness of trace amounts of these chemicals comes in large part because we are aggressively conducting research on water quality and safety,” said Tom LaPorte, a spokesman for the Chicago Department of Water Management.
Drugs end up in drinking water after people take medicines and residue passes through their bodies down the toilet. Conventional sewage and water treatment filters out some of the substances, or at least reduces the concentrations, but studies have found that small amounts still get through.
Although treated sewage from the Chicago area drains away from Lake Michigan, more than 300 other cities discharge treated waste and untreated sewage overflows into the lake and its tributaries, according to the EPA.
“Exposure to some of these chemicals … is cause for consternation for people and concern over fish and wildlife impacts,” said Rebecca Klaper, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee who studies the Great Lakes.
The EPA’s position is that it doesn’t yet have enough evidence to limit pharmaceuticals and many other unregulated chemicals in drinking water. Water officials say not enough is known to justify spending millions of taxpayer dollars to upgrade treatment plants.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Drug disposal
The detection of pharmaceuticals in water has prompted new advice about how to properly dispose of unused medicine. The Illinois EPA recommends taking it to collection events for household hazardous waste. If that is not practical, you can place unused drugs in the trash after grinding them up and mixing them with coffee grounds or cat box filler so they can’t be stolen. Questions? Email the agency at EPA.Meds.Mail@Illinois.gov. (This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .)
Prescription Drugs & Car Crashes?
PRESCRIPTION DRUGS CAUSE THREE PERCENT OF ROAD CRASHES
A study examining at-fault statistics from car accidents in France has found that, over an almost-three-year period, prescribed medicines played a role in 3.3 percent of all crashes. France has a drug-risk classification system that assigns a risk number to all drugs, based on each medicine’s odds of negatively affecting driving ability. The classification numbers run from level zero, meaning no driving risk, to level 3, which represents a major risk. The study found that the risk of being the cause of an auto accident was 31 percent greater for those taking level 2 drugs, and 25 percent higher for level 3 drugs, while level zero drug users showed no increased risk.
This shows that the system is a fairly accurate means of predicting driving risk. It also clarifies the overall proportion of accidents caused by prescription drugs: a significant three percent. The study authors suggested that if any new warning label system is instituted, a follow-up study should be done to confirm its overall effect on outcomes. (Roughly 1.3 million people die in road accidents each year, worldwide.) Published November 16, 2010 by the journal PLoS Medicine, this study is available online at http://bit.ly/a1aiFS, free of charge.
Prescription Drug & Illegal Drug Abuse Neck & Neck
A new study shows that for the first time, abuse of prescription or over-the-counter medications results in as many cases of emergency room (ER) visits as those resulting from cocaine, heroin or other illegal drug abuses.
In 2008, there were one million ER cases of legal drug abuses, mostly painkillers and sedatives – and that was about the same number of cases of ER visits from illegal drugs. Just five years ago, statistics show, illegal drug ER incidents were double that of prescription drug cases. Some of the increase in legal drug problems may come from mixing several prescription drugs or from combining them with alcohol.
The director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy released a statement suggesting that, “the abuse of prescription drugs is our nation’s fastest-growing drug problem.“ The report was released June 18, 2010 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and can be read online at: http://bit.ly/d7giwz.