Pharmaceutical chemicals aren't on list of substances in water that require public notice
Annual water quality reports mailed to
Chicagoans this month didn't say a word about sex hormones, painkillers or
anti-cholesterol drugs, even though city officials found traces of
pharmaceuticals and other unregulated substances in treated Lake Michigan
water during the past year.
Like other cities, Chicago must notify the public if its drinking water
contains certain regulated contaminants, including lead, pesticides and
harmful bacteria.
But pharmaceutical chemicals, which have been detected in drinking water
across the country, are not on that list. So
Mayor Richard Daley is technically correct in stating that the "pure,
fresh drinking water" pumped to 7 million people in Chicago and the suburbs
"meets or exceeds all regulatory standards."
Drinking water standards haven't been updated for years, in part because
little is known about how pharmaceutical concoctions might affect public
health. But researchers and regulators are concerned about the potential
effects of long-term exposure to these substances, which are designed to have
an impact at low doses.
"We're just scratching the surface with
what's been detected to date," said Dana Kolpin, a researcher at
the U.S. Geological Survey. "And we don't have a clue about what these
mixtures can do."
Chicago officials didn't start conducting their own tests until last year, after
a Tribune investigation found small amounts of pharmaceuticals and other
unregulated chemicals in samples of the city's tap water.
The city collected samples of treated Lake Michigan water four times in 2008.
According to results posted on the city's Web site, the tests found small
amounts of the sex hormones testosterone and progesterone; gemfibrozil, a
prescription cholesterol-fighting drug; ibuprofen, an over-the-counter
painkiller, and DEET, the active ingredient in bug spray.
The tests also found caffeine, nicotine and cotinine, a nicotine byproduct, all
of which researchers consider to be indicators of pharmaceuticals from human
waste.
Drugs end up in drinking water after people take medications and some of the
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 multiple 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 put treated waste and untreated sewage overflows into
the lake and its tributaries, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency.
Chicago's tests found tiny amounts of the antidepressant Prozac and
sulfamethoxazole, an antibiotic, in untreated water collected from Lake Michigan
intake cribs. But those prescription drugs weren't found in treated water. Nor
were most of the 71 other unregulated compounds the city screened for.
The Daley administration first promised to test for pharmaceuticals monthly,
then changed course after the first tests turned up inconsistent results. Now
officials plan to collect samples three times a year and send the water off to
be tested by three different labs.
"We haven't seen any patterns yet, so it's tough to reach any conclusions," said
John Spatz, the city's water commissioner. "But since it's an emerging issue,
we're going to keep following it."
As promised, the test results are available online. Yet it requires considerable
sleuthing to find them on the Department of Water Management's home page, and
the drugs found in the water are not easily discernible amid six pages of
numbers.
In the Tribune's tests, conducted in March 2008, water drawn from a drinking
fountain at City Hall contained trace amounts of cotinine; carbamazepine, an
anti-seizure drug; and acetaminophen, an over-the-counter painkiller. The
newspaper's tests also found two unregulated industrial chemicals used to make
Teflon and Scotchgard, neither of which the city tested for.
Even though such substances are turning up virtually every time researchers look
for them, the
EPA says it still doesn't have enough evidence to limit pharmaceuticals and
many other unregulated chemicals in drinking water -- in part because cities
haven't been required to test routinely for the compounds.
The Obama administration's top water regulator, Peter Silva, promised at his
confirmation hearings to step up the government's research efforts. Without
direction from federal officials, cities across the nation have slowly begun to
test their water for pharmaceuticals, prompted by studies in Europe and later by
the U.S. Geological Survey.
Milwaukee, which also draws its drinking water from Lake Michigan, added dozens
of pharmaceuticals three years ago to its annual testing for unregulated
contaminants and posts easy-to-understand results online. Nothing turned up last
year, according to the city's site.
Water officials say not enough is known to justify spending millions of taxpayer
dollars to upgrade treatment plants so they could strip the chemicals from the
water. The most effective method, reverse osmosis, is expensive and creates a
large amount of waste.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/chi-water-testing-14-jul14,0,4303601.story