Healthier Water: A Critical Collateral Benefit Of Drug Take-Back Day
For every bottle of prescription drugs local police collect during a special Drug Take-Back promotion on September 26, and all the drugs collected year-round through a local secure dispensing site at police headquarters, Newtown’s drinking water potentially becomes a little bit safer.
It’s no secret that many unused prescriptions fall into the hands of individuals using them for recreational purposes, or to supplement an addiction. But local experts on the issue also know that tons of other drugs are dumped into garbage receptacles and end up in local landfills, or worse, are flushed down the toilet.
That’s why the Pootatuck Watershed Association (PWA), which helps preserve and safeguard Newtown’s sole source aquifer supplying many local homes with drinking water, is stepping up an awareness campaign about the environmental hazards of improper prescription drug disposal.
PWA President Sarah Middeleer said municipal water control plants are only equipped to filter out about half of the vast variety of prescription and over-the-counter drugs dumped and flushed into the wastewater supply every year.
“Flushing has been found to mix so many pharmaceutical chemicals into our wastewater, that it’s showing up in our watersheds and subsequently in our drinking water,” she told The Newtown Bee this week.
On Saturday, September 26, from 10 am to 2 pm, Newtown Police in conjunction with the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will hold a free, anonymous collection event. Members of the public may bring their unwanted prescription drugs to the police station at 3 Main Street for proper disposal.
The event allows people to properly dispose of unwanted prescription medications and thus prevent pill abuse and pill theft by ridding homes of potentially dangerous expired, unused, and unwanted prescriptions, according to town police Sergeant Douglas Wisentaner.
The disposal service will not accept liquids, needles, and sharps, however.
For anyone who wishes to dispose of drugs at any other time, the police department lobby contains a state-sanctioned drug disposal receptacle which is available for public use seven days a week, 24 hours a day.
Nationwide AP Study
So how much of a problem could flushed drugs cause?
A recent Associated Press investigation shows a vast 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.
And while the study shows these concentrations of pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in quantities of parts per billion or trillion — far below the levels of a medical dose, 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.
Besides raw, unused medicine that is tossed or flushed into the water system, drug residue also leeches into our drinking water because our bodies typically only absorb some of these medications. The rest of it passes through and is flushed as human waste.
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, the study found.
And while researchers do not yet understand the exact risks from decades of persistent exposure to random combinations of low levels of pharmaceuticals, the AP reports that recent studies which have gone virtually unnoticed by the general 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.
Many Regions Analyzed
Members of the AP National Investigative Team 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 obtained by the AP:
*Officials in Philadelphia said testing there discovered 56 pharmaceuticals or byproducts in treated drinking water, including medicines for pain, infection, high cholesterol, asthma, epilepsy, mental illness and heart problems. The city’s watersheds were found to contain 63 pharmaceuticals or byproducts.
*Anti-epileptic and anti-anxiety 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.
*The drinking water for Washington, D.C., and surrounding areas tested positive for six pharmaceuticals.
The situation is undoubtedly worse than suggested by the positive test results in the major population centers documented by the AP.
The federal government does not require any testing and has not set safety limits for drugs in water. The AP’s 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 AP, 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, Neb; Oklahoma City; Santa Clara, Calif.; and New York City.
The New York state health department and the USGS tested the source of the city’s water, upstate. They found trace concentrations of heart medicine, infection fighters, estrogen, anticonvulsants, a mood stabilizer, and a tranquilizer.
Rural Concerns Validated
Rural consumers who draw water from their own wells aren’t in the clear either, experts say.
The Stroud Water Research Center, in Avondale, Penn., measured water samples from New York City’s upstate watershed for caffeine, a common contaminant that scientists often look for as a possible signal for the presence of other pharmaceuticals. Though more caffeine was detected at suburban sites, researcher Anthony Aufdenkampe was struck by the relatively high levels even in less populated areas.
He suspects it escapes from failed septic tanks, maybe with other drugs. “Septic systems are essentially small treatment plants that are essentially unmanaged and therefore tend to fail,” Aufdenkampe said.
Even users of bottled water and home filtration systems don’t necessarily avoid exposure. Bottlers, some of which simply repackage tap water, do not typically treat or test for pharmaceuticals, according to the industry’s main trade group. The same goes for the makers of home filtration systems.
Locally, Ms Middeleer says Newtowners can help protect the Pootatuck aquifer by disposing of all surplus, expired or unused drugs into the receptacles provided either this Saturday, or year-round at the Newtown Police Department.
“The science isn’t all in on this subject,” she said. “But flushing has been shown in some studies to also have negative effects on aquatic species critical to the local environmental balance.”
One study she reviewed said about half of the top 70 drugs consumed by Americans was found in samples, even after wastewater and drinking water treatments were applied.
“Antibiotics, hormones, Viagra and similar drugs, antidepressants, and anti-inflammatory drugs were very common,” Ms Middeleer said. “But since all the meds collected by law enforcement are incinerated, there is little impact of our water sources.”
Local landscape professional and association board member Dan Holmes has produced a short video Ms Middeleer said is very informative on the subject of chemicals in the watershed.
Anyone interested in viewing the film, titled Our Sole Source, can do so at the association’s website (pootatuckwatershed.org) under the Education tab.
Associated Press content was used in this report.