WHEN Presents at CleanMed!

Julie A. Becker, PhD, MPH, Founder and Board President, will be facilitating the session on "Pharmaceutical Management Models: Preventing, Collecting and Reducing" and presenting on the Philadelphia Pilot on Unused Medicines.

Teresa Mendez-Quigley, MSW, LSW, director of Environmental Stewardship, will be facilitating the session, "Greening the NICU & Beyond: Children's Hospitals Highlight Green Advances."

Dianne Moore, MS, MSW, manager of Healthy Food in Health Care, will present on "Ecolabels - Organic? Certified? Natural? What Does That Label Really Mean?"

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Pharmaceuticals found in US drinking water

    Trace quantities could endanger wildlife, humans

    By Jeff Donn, Associated Press  |  March 10, 2008

    NEW YORK - An array of pharmaceuticals - including antibiotics,  anticonvulsants, mood stabilizers, and sex hormones - have been found in the  drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press  investigation found.

    The concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in  quantities of parts per billion or trillion, far below the levels of a medical  dose. And utilities insist that their water is safe.

    But the presence of so many prescription drugs - and over-the-counter  medicines like acetaminophen and ibuprofen - in so much of our drinking water  is heightening worries among scientists of long-term consequences to human  health.

    In the course of a five-month inquiry, the AP discovered that drugs have  been detected in the drinking water supplies of 24 major metropolitan areas -  from southern California to northern New Jersey, from Detroit to Louisville,  Ky.

    Water providers rarely disclose results of pharmaceutical screenings,  unless pressed, the Associated Press found.

    For example, the head of a group representing major California suppliers  said the public "doesn't know how to interpret the information" and might be  unduly alarmed.

    When people take pills, their bodies absorb some of the medication, but the  rest of it passes through and is flushed down the toilet. The wastewater is  treated before it is discharged into reservoirs, rivers, or lakes.

    Then, some of the water is cleansed again at drinking water treatment  plants and piped to consumers. But most treatments do not remove all drug  residue.

    While researchers do not yet understand the exact risks from decades of  persistent exposure to random combinations of low levels of pharmaceuticals,  recent studies, which have gone virtually unnoticed by the public, have found  alarming effects on human cells and wildlife.

    "We recognize it is a growing concern, and we're taking it very seriously,"  said Benjamin H. Grumbles, assistant administrator for water at the US  Environmental Protection Agency.

    The Associated Press reviewed hundreds of scientific reports, analyzed  federal drinking water databases, visited environmental study sites, and  treatment plants and interviewed more than 230 officials, academics, and  scientists.

    They also surveyed the nation's 50 largest cities and a dozen other major  water providers, as well as smaller community water providers in all 50  states.

    Here are some of the key test results:

     Officials in Philadelphia said testing discovered 56 pharmaceuticals or  byproducts in treated drinking water, including medicines for pain, infection,  high cholesterol, asthma, epilepsy, mental illness, and heart problems.  Sixty-three pharmaceuticals or byproducts were found in the city's watersheds. 

     Antiepileptic and antianxiety medications were detected in a portion of  the treated drinking water for 18.5 million people in southern California. 

     Researchers at the US Geological Survey analyzed a Passaic Valley Water  Commission drinking water treatment plant, which serves 850,000 people in  northern New Jersey, and found a metabolized angina medicine and the  mood-stabilizing carbamazepine in drinking water. 

     A sex hormone was detected in San Francisco's drinking water. 

     The drinking water for Washington, D.C., and surrounding areas tested  positive for six pharmaceuticals. 

The federal government doesn't require any testing and hasn't set safety  limits for drugs in water. Some providers screen only for one or two  pharmaceuticals, leaving open the possibility that others are present.

Of the 62 major water providers contacted, the drinking water for 28 was  tested. Boston is among the 34 that haven't been tested, along with Baltimore,  Chicago, Houston, Miami, New York, and Phoenix.

The investigation also indicates that watersheds, the natural sources of  most of the nation's water supply, also are contaminated. Tests were conducted  in the watersheds of 35 of the 62 major providers surveyed by the Associated  Press and pharmaceuticals were detected in 28.

Yet officials in six of those 28 metropolitan areas said they did not go on  to test their drinking water: Fairfax, Va.; Montgomery County in Maryland;  Omaha; Oklahoma City; Santa Clara, Calif.; and New York City.

Of the 28 major metropolitan areas where tests were performed on drinking  water supplies, only Albuquerque; Austin, Texas; and Virginia Beach, Va., said  tests were negative.