Carol Ashe, Vice President
http://www.cdm.com/Ideas@Work/Viewpoint/Active+Pharmaceutical+Compounds+in+Water.htm
What's considered therapeutic is literally turning into a potential health issue. Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs), or prescription and over-the-counter drugs, ranging from antibiotics to fragrances and sun-screen agents, have been widely detected in surface waters in Europe and the United States at concentrations from parts per trillion to parts per billion. Recent studies have identified the presence of over 50 individual PPCPs from more than 10 classes of therapeutic agents and personal care products in environmental samples, including sewage, surface waters, groundwaters, and, to a limited extent, drinking water. With increased water reuse, PPCPs have the potential to appear in drinking water and become a major focus of regulatory agencies.
Research has focused primarily on disruption of endocrine systems by steroids and promotion of pathogen resistance to antibiotics. The chemicals of particular concern are antibiotics, estrogenic steroids, and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. Parts per trillion levels of natural and pharmaceutical estrogen compounds have been shown to have reproductive and developmental effects on fish. Anti-epileptic drugs produce human reproductive effects, and musk fragrances are bioaccumulative and persistent. Nonylphenol, found in liquid detergents, paints, and cosmetics, is stable, persistent, and hazardous.
Sources of PPCPs include treated and untreated sewage effluent, terrestrial runoff (such as runoff from confined animal feeding operations), and windborne drift of antimicrobials applied to crops. The numbers and types of PPCPs occurring in surface and ground waters across a large number of watersheds and municipalities are only partly known, and their toxicity largely inferred based on structure-activity relationships. Despite this, non-target, unintended effects may occur. Of greater concern is the fact that primary PPCPs may break down further into potentially more dangerous chemicals.
PPCP discharges into the environment are not new. However, the increased development of PPCPs and use of prescription drugs will increase their presence in the environment. Analytical methods are becoming refined, prompting more investigations. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had stated the need for an integrated monitoring program to develop a better geographic profile for PPCPs. Government entities and researchers in several states, including New Mexico, California, Minnesota, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, and Ohio, have sponsored monitoring efforts to determine the presence of PPCPs in various media, and an extensive study by the U.S. Geological Survey examined the presence of pharmaceuticals, hormones, and other wastewater contaminants in 139 streams in 30 states. The discharge of pharmaceuticals from feedlots became a concern during EPA's development of standards and guidelines for that industry.
Significant to pharmaceutical manufacturers is the environmental assessment requirement by the Food and Drug Administration when the average concentration of a drug in the environment equals or exceeds 1 part per billion, as well as EPA's effluent limitation guideline and wastewater related maximum achievable control technology (MACT) requirements. Agencies and researchers have suggested re-examining this threshold to make it more consistent with the European Union threshold of 0.1 ug/l, or to link the threshold to potency or toxicity. Continued research will mark new developments as regulatory agencies identify strategies to handle new PPCP findings.
Carol Ashe, vice president in the firm's Cambridge, Massachusetts office, has more than 20 years of experience in treatability studies, compliance issues, process selection and evaluation, and drinking water research.