Pharmaceuticals and personal care products are included in a class of “emerging” environmental contaminants and include products used in daily life: shampoos, soaps, perfumes, lotions, over-the counter and prescription drugs, and veterinary drugs, to name a few. Though these compounds have existed in the environment for many years, they are called “contaminants of emerging concern,” because their occurrence in our environment has only recently begun to elicit concern among the scientific and general public.
Detected in rivers, streams, lakes, ponds and groundwater, in urban and rural settings, PPCPs have also been detected, albeit at low concentrations, in human drinking water sources. Though detected at low concentrations, the ubiquitous nature of these compounds, however, indicates that the threat of chronic exposure to PPCPs is real. Unfortunately, chronic effects of PPCPs are not well-documented and thus cannot be quantified.
The primary entry route of PPCPs into our waters is through wastewater treatment systems – municipal and private septic systems. When you swallow a pill, you’re probably anticipating its effects in your body, not thinking about its ultimate destiny. Yet the drugs we consume, and their metabolites, are excreted from our bodies at a relatively high rate, i.e., our bodies do not fully metabolize the drugs that we are consuming. This is the primary source of pharmaceuticals in our waters.
Wastewater treatment systems are not highly effective at removing pharmaceuticals or the chemicals in personal care products from wastewater. Additionally, unwanted or unused drugs are often flushed down the toilet or rinsed down the drain, also leading to their ultimate release into our water resources. A wide array of personal care products are also rinsed or dumped down the drain. Veterinary pharmaceuticals, including steroids and antibiotics, also enter our wastewater systems and/or can directly enter water bodies or groundwater via runoff. Humans and other animals do not fully metabolize the pharmaceuticals they are administered.
Though not classified as pharmaceuticals or personal care products, a wide array of consumer products, including widely available pesticides and herbicides, have been shown to be pharmaceutically active, as well as potentially toxic.
Pharmaceutical compounds are specifically designed to have biological effects and are not usually selective on the organisms they impact. It has been known for many years that some pharmaceuticals – prescription and over-the counter – in our environment can act as endocrine disrupters, interfering with fetal development of aquatic organisms. Studies have linked steroids and other hormonally active compounds, including human birth control, in the environment to the development of female reproductive organs in male fish, known as the the feminization of fish.
Other scientific discoveries have linked the antibiotic resistance in bacteria and other pathogens to their exposure to antibiotic drugs. Studies have also linked changes in mating, brooding and feeding behaviors in aquatic organisms to various PPCP compounds.
Nationally, low concentrations of many PPCP compounds have been detected in surface, ground and drinking water. In a couple of limited studies in New Hampshire, trace amounts of various compounds, including caffeine, acetaminophen, antidepressants and antibiotics, have been detected in streams, lakes, groundwater and rivers above and below wastewater treatment outflows. At this time, wastewater facilities are not equipped or required to detect, treat, or remove these compounds from wastewater. This would be a very expensive proposition due to the numbers of compounds. There are also many unknowns regarding the mixing of all of these substances and possible synergistic effects.
What are you supposed to do with expired drugs? It may be news to you that flushing unused or unwanted drugs down the drain or toilet is not recommended. In fact, this disposal method releases PPCPs to our environment. Incineration seems to be the best available disposal method.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration guidelines are summarized below:
• Do not flush drugs down the toilet unless specific instructions indicate you should.
• Place unwanted drugs in a sealable bag with coffee grounds or kitty litter. This makes the drugs less appealing to animals and children, and unrecognizable by people who may intentionally go through your trash, and will prevent the medication from leaking out of the garbage.
• Ensuring the plastic bag is sealed tightly, throw the package away with your household trash.
You can also be on the lookout for local take-back programs. Typically, the collected drugs are incinerated, thus making them chemically inert. Peterborough Police Department’s Drug Take-Back is scheduled for early April this year. Check with your town for its schedule.
To prevent collecting unwanted drugs in the first place, don’t fill new prescriptions in three-month batches, like most mail-order pharmacies promote. Until you know that you’re new medication works for you, fill prescriptions in monthly intervals. And don’t accept free samples of drugs from your doctor that you have no intention of using.
You may also want to talk to your doctor about dosage. If our bodies are not metabolizing all of the active compound, it makes sense to ask if the dose can be reduced.
Robert Wood is a member of the Peterborough Conservation Commission.