By Matt Christensen
Times-News writer
March 15, 2007
TWIN FALLS - If you take an antibiotic and use the bathroom, you may be
contributing to a looming environmental crisis.
Across the nation, antibiotics and pharmaceuticals are showing up in
wastewater, and some scientists say that may be increasing the rate at which
bacteria become resistant to antibiotic medicines that fight human diseases
like staph infections. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria could lead to a
devastating epidemic.
Perhaps more alarming, federal, state and local governments are doing little
testing for drugs in waterways. In Idaho, no agency examines water for
antibiotics or pharmaceuticals.
"No, we're not testing at this time," said Richard Huddleston, the Idaho
Department of Environmental Quality's wastewater manager. "Currently, there
are no standards (for testing water for antibiotics)."
Huddleston said he's not aware of any state that tests wastewater for
medicines, but it's a hot topic now among scientists across the country.
Surprisingly, it was a West Virginia high school student that pioneered the
research. A teenager named Ashley Mulroy began testing water for antibiotics
several years ago after she read a report about them showing up in European
waters. For 10 weeks, she gathered samples from the Ohio River. Her results
found penicillin, among other antibiotics, and she won a national award for
her efforts.
Since Mulroy found the drugs, several research projects have confirmed the
presence of antibiotics and other drugs in the nation's waterways.
Between January 2001 and June 2002, the U.S. Geological Survey found an
alarming amount of drugs in water they linked to fish hatcheries, including
one in Oregon.
Like the Idaho DEQ, the federal Environmental Protection Agency has no
standards for testing wastewater for antibiotics. However, its Web site warns
that "they may pose risks if they enter the environment." The Web site also
cites several studies, including one published in 1993, that implicated
estrogen hormones in the decrease of sperm counts among Western men and
reproductive disorders in wildlife.
Many suspect that much of the contamination stems from agriculture operations
where animals are routinely given antibiotics and hormones to fight infections
and increase production. Some experts estimate that as much as 40 percent of
the nation's antibiotics are given to farm animals.
However, the EPA says that little information is available that links
antibiotic water contamination to the compounds in animal waste.
Gene Taylor, an EPA drinking water expert, said, "It has not been a
high-priority issue because it hasn't shown up yet in drinking water. But I
say that with the caveat that it hasn't been widely tested."
Taylor said someone would probably need to find antibiotics in Idaho drinking
water for the drugs to make the list of EPA's testable compounds. Even then,
he said the EPA would weigh possible health effects of antibiotics in drinking
water and the effectiveness of procedures that could remove them before
establishing a widespread testing or regulation program.
Times-News staff writer Matt Christensen covers natural resources. He welcomes
comments at 735-3243 and at
matt.christensen@lee.net.
http://www.magicvalley.com/articles/2007/03/15/news/local_state/108208.txt
