Drugs In Our drinking Water?

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This article was printed in our local newspaper. John Garber

 

Drugs In Our Water?

 

Pharmaceuticals showing up in wastewaters across the nation;

state doesn't test for them

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.

 

Tlmes-News staff writer Matt Christensen