Nexus - 0704 - New Times Magazine-pages

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deBriefings MORE PHARMACEUTICAL POLLUTANTS FOUND IN A. Ternes, documented unexpectedly high concentrations of WATERWAYS AND GROUNDWATER IN US & CANADA rugs, many of which "measured in parts per billion (ppb)", both by J. Raloff © 2000 in raw sewage and in water leaving treatment plants in Germany. menting widespread pharmaceutical contamination of | Water Technology in Wiesbaden, Germany, now finds that these their lakes, streams and groundwater. In early April, US rugs enter groundwater. and Canadian scientists offered preliminary confirmation that Sewage effluent can amount to at least half the water in many traces of drugs, excreted by people and livestock, similarly pol- of Germany's smaller rivers, Ternes notes. Groundwater fed by lute American and Canadian waters. They presented their find- streams carrying relatively undiluted effluent can be tainted with O: the past decade, European chemists have been docu- The chemist, who is based at the Institute for Water Research and ings at the first major American symposium on pharmaceuticals ppb of carbamazepine, an anticonvulsive drug. Ternes has also in water, held as part of the American Chemical Society's Spring etected similar amounts of the anti-inflammatory drug national meeting. iclofenac, and up to 2.4 ppb of iodine-based drugs used to Water pollution by drugs "is a newly emerging issue", observes —_ improve contrast in X-rays. Christian G. Daughton, symposium co-organiser and chief of Because people discard their excess drugs, the town dump can environmental chemistry at the US Environmental Protection —_also be a source of pharmaceutical pollution. Under one landfill, Agency's National Exposure Research Ternes found groundwater tainted with 12 Laboratory in Las Vegas, Nevada. By offer- ppb of clofibric acid and 1 ppb of ing a US venue for the meeting "and partici- phenazone, an analgesic. The latter med- pation by many European leaders in this ication also turned up in groundwater— field", he hoped to awaken domestic interest "but at far higher concentrations"—under a and catalyse research on the topic (Science . ' leaking dump in Zagreb, Croatia, notes News, 21 March 1998, p. 187). The symposium's Marijan Ahel of the Rudjer Boskovic Ironically, Daughton notes, EPA scientists . . Institute in Zagreb. Some of his water sam- who examined the sludge from a US sewage scientists note that, ples had the drug at as much as 50 times treatment plant 20 years ago found that the to date, few if any the concentration detected by Ternes. incoming sewage contained excreted . . 4 In the United States, federal scientists aspirin, caffeine and nicotine. Daughton toxicological studies recently began probing another source of says that the findings itten off as a H di llution: large feedlots for livestock. wots dain vera" **| ave evaluated risks | veisin, as fale foto B At about ts same ume recalls i posed by chronic an the one’ rates is fed to live- ouwer of the gricultura stock as growth enhancers. Research Service in Phoenix, Arizona, exposure to trace Geochemist Mike Meyer, of the US the cholesterol-lowering drug clofibric concentrations of Geological Survey in Raleigh, North acid turned up in a groundwater reser- h ti Carolina, and his colleagues have pharmaceutica drugs. voir being tapped to meet the Phoenix begun looking for antibiotics in hog- community's thirst. The drug had waste lagoons. Three drugs frequent- entered with treated sewage which the ly show up, one in concentrations city had been using to replenish the approaching one part per million. The aquifer. same three antibiotics, which are also "At the time," Bouwer recalls, "we prescribed for people, often appear in didn't pay attention to the finding.” It local waters—though, as Meyer notes, should have been a wake-up call, he "usually only at one-tenth to one-hun- now argues, because if clofibric acid dredth the concentrations in the could pass through a sewage treatment lagoons". "So, it appears we're get- plant and percolate through soil unscathed, so could a host of __ ting transport of these antibiotics into surface and ground waters," other drugs. he told Science News. And they do, as new studies show. Meyer says that colleagues at the Centers for Disease Control Chris Metcalfe of Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, _and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, have begun sampling bacteria Canada, reports finding a broad mix of drugs, including anti- _ from the tainted waters to investigate their responses to the cancer agents, psychiatric drugs and anti-inflammatory com- _ antibiotics present. Their findings could begin to resolve a long- pounds. "Levels of prescription drugs that we have leaving _ standing question: what is the contribution, if any, of livestock to sewage treatment plants in Canada are sometimes higher than _ potentially dangerous reservoirs of bacteria resistant to common what's being seen in Germany," he says. He explains that many —_ antibiotics (Science News, 5 June 1999, p. 356)? North American cities employ more rudimentary sewage treat- Traces of drugs are sometimes making it all the way into tap ment methods than do those in Germany. water. Thomas Heberer, of the Technical University of Berlin, Daughton also observes that a million US homes send their __ reported finding traces of at least three pharmaceuticals in sam- essentially untreated sewage directly into the environment. ples from his home tap. The concentrations, however, were near Two years ago, the symposium's other co-organiser, Thomas __ the limits of detection—a few parts per trillion. Moreover, he The symposium's scientists note that, to date, few if any toxicological studies have evaluated risks posed by chronic exposure to trace #2 ef drugs. JUNE — JULY 2000 NEXUS 11 concentrations of pharmaceutical