Pharmaceutical pollution-How it threatens your health

[Guest guest]

Pharmaceutical Pollution:

What it is, and How Pharmaceutical Pollution Threatens Your Health

by www.SixWise.com

 

Americans are prescribed millions of doses of prescription drugs

every year. Livestock are given millions more. But after the pill has

been swallowed or the injection taken, the active components of the

drugs do not become inert or completely absorbed by the body.

 

 

 

One study found that 80 percent of streams tested contained

antibiotics, steroids, synthetic hormones or other common drugs.

 

Far from disappearing, the drugs are excreted and now, scientists are

finding, prescription drugs are showing up in our ground water, soil,

waterways and even our drinking water. That's because our

conventional sewage treatments may not be looking for drugs, and

certainly don't always remove them.

 

Adding to the problem are prescription drugs that aren't used, then

are flushed down the toilet or deposited in landfills -- ultimately

ending up in the environment.

 

This so-called " pharmaceutical pollution " could have major

implications on wildlife, agriculture and humans -- yet is only

beginning to be studied.

 

" This is an important new research area, " said A. Lynn Roberts,

leader of a Johns Hopkins team that began a study to determine the

scope of pharmaceutical pollution in the United States. Roberts

continued:

 

" Over the past few years, scientists in Europe have found

pharmaceuticals in natural waterways, sewage treatment effluents and

even in drinking water. Yet until this year [2003] there have been

virtually no scientific studies examining this issue in the United

States. It's important that we begin to look at this because there

are many ways in which pharmaceuticals in the environment could

produce undesirable effects on aquatic organisms or even humans. "

 

How Widespread is the Problem?

 

Current estimates are still being gathered, but a study conducted in

1999-2000 by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) found that most

waterways contain at least some antibiotics, steroids, synthetic

hormones or other common drugs. Out of 139 streams in 30 states, they

found:

 

About 80 percent contained trace amounts of contaminants

 

Half the streams contained seven or more chemical compounds

 

One-third of the streams contained 10 or more compounds

 

One water sample contained 38 chemicals

" We're not talking about rampant dumping, " said one USGS survey

official. " We're looking at the effect of normal existing usage for

these different chemicals. "

 

Just how many drugs are we using currently? A lot. Here are some

statistics just for antibiotics (not including any other types of

drugs):

 

Humans consume 235 million doses of antibiotics each year.

 

Livestock and poultry producers administered more than 21 million

pounds of antibiotics to animals in 2004 alone.

 

When a drug is taken, experts say up to 90 percent may be excreted

back into the environment, unchanged.

 

What kinds of drugs -- and to what extent -- are currently out there

is anyone's guess. Padma Venkatraman, a postdoctoral fellow at Johns

Hopkins who is part of the research team, believes the drugs most

likely to be found at " toxicologically significant levels " include:

 

Antidepressants

 

Anti-convulsants

 

Anti-cancer drugs

 

Anti-microbials

 

" We're trying to make an intelligent guess as to what's out there in

the environment and what's probably toxic, " Venkatraman said.

 

Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria on the Rise

 

 

 

Up to 90 percent of a drug you consume may be excreted -- unchanged.

 

Just one problem stemming from pharmaceutical pollution is antibiotic-

resistant bacteria. When drugs are excreted in waste, the compounds

linger in the environment. In the case of livestock waste, the

antibiotic-laced manure is spread directly onto farm crops as

fertilizer. From there it may run off into nearby streams.

 

The result is that bacteria is able to mutate into strains that are

resistant to the widely spread antibiotics, paving the way for

infections that cannot be easily cured.

 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 2

million people in hospitals get infections each year, which cause

90,000 deaths. Of these, more than 70 percent of the bacteria that

causes these infections are resistant to at least one common

antibiotic that is typically used to treat them.

 

Health Problems Remain a Mystery

 

" Little is known about the potential interactive effects " from

complex mixtures of waste contaminants in the environment, according

to USGS.

 

For instance, Roberts pointed out that antidepressants work by

altering levels of serotonin. However, serotonin causes many aquatic

creatures to spawn. The result could be that prescription drugs may

alter breeding cycles in the wild. Further, drugs can have major

impacts on developing fetuses in humans. If small amounts showed up

in drinking water, it could cause birth defects or other problems.

 

" Pharmaceuticals have high biological activity, " Roberts said. " We

may be able to tolerate them for a short period of time, but that

doesn't mean they won't hurt us -- or developing fetuses or aquatic

organisms -- at higher concentrations or over a long period of time. "

 

There is good news, and that is that attention to this issue is

growing, and so is the drive to find out just what types of problems

may be occurring.

 

The USGS agrees, stating in their report that " protecting the

integrity of our water resources is one of the most essential

environmental issues of the 21st century. "

 

http://www.sixwise.com/newsletters/06/02/16/pharmaceuticals.htm