Update: Two US government agencies, EPA and US Geological Service are testing sewage from treatment plants that serve pharmaceutical companies by comparing the outflows from treatment plants that do not. Preliminary results from the USGS study show sewage from treatment plants serving drug manufacturing facilities have significantly higher medicine residues. EPA's results show a disproportionate amount of antibiotic in waste water at the time a Michigan factory was producing the substance. Other researchers have also found medicines in waste water. Codeine has been found in the Delaware River near where pharmaceutical companies manufacturer the drug. Warfarin, a blood thinner, has been found in Denver municipal waste water. Warfarin is also used as rat poison, pesticide and bilge cleaner.
AP conducted an investigation of the problem of pharmaceutical wastes and
concludes that water contamination by drug residues is significant and consistently ignored by the federal government. Research has found that even extremely diluted amounts of powerful drugs harm fish, frogs and other aquatic species.
AP estimates, because no government records are kept, that 250 million pounds of pharmaceuticals and contaminated packaging are disposed of by hospitals and hospices each year. The study identified 22 compounds ranging from lithium to tetracycline hydrochloride that are monitored as industrial wastes released into the environment under federal pollution laws and are considered active pharmaceutical agents by the Food and Drug Administration.
{4/7/09}Amphibians are disappearing from the planet at an alarming rate. The unique organ through which they absorb water and nutrients, their skin, is particularly vulnerable to environmental pollution. Scientists think that chronic exposure to pollution is contributing to their demise. It makes sense that chronic exposure to man-made chemicals in the environment will eventually have an effect on larger organisms like
homo sapiens. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released a scientific report on April 1st with bad news. A nationwide sampling of coastal and fresh waters shows all are contaminated with flame retardant chemicals used in consumer products since the 1970s. PBDEs (polybrominated diphenyl esters) have been found in human blood, breast milk and body fat. A growing body of evidence indicates that chronic exposure to PBDEs may produce detrimental effects in animals, including humans. In animal studies, rats fed PBDE their entire lives developed liver tumors reports
ENS. Based on this evidence EPA has classified decabromodiphenyl ester as a possible human carcinogen. Industrial areas such as New York's Hudson River estuary have the highest levels, but remote locations have also tested positive, evidence of atmospheric transport.
[image: psu.science.org]
{4/7/09}Amphibians are disappearing from the planet at an alarming rate. The unique organ through which they absorb water and nutrients, their skin, is particularly vulnerable to environmental pollution. Scientists think that chronic exposure to pollution is contributing to their demise. It makes sense that chronic exposure to man-made chemicals in the environment will eventually have an effect on larger organisms like homo sapiens. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released a scientific report on April 1st with bad news. A nationwide sampling of coastal and fresh waters shows all are contaminated with flame retardant chemicals used in consumer products since the 1970s. PBDEs (polybrominated diphenyl esters) have been found in human blood, breast milk and body fat. A growing body of evidence indicates that chronic exposure to PBDEs may produce detrimental effects in animals, including humans. In animal studies, rats fed PBDE their entire lives developed liver tumors reports ENS. Based on this evidence EPA has classified decabromodiphenyl ester as a possible human carcinogen. Industrial areas such as New York's Hudson River estuary have the highest levels, but remote locations have also tested positive, evidence of atmospheric transport.