Drugs are mass produced in pharmaceutical plants, distributed throughout the drug stores across the nation, brought into people's homes, then ingested and/or flushed down the toilet after the expiration date. The life of the drugs does not end there. The chemicals in the drugs are littered in human wastes and dissolved into sewage lines. Sewage-treatment plants are not sophisticated enough to filter out and neutralize the drugs thoroughly, so the treated wastes is still tainted with chemicals when it is discharged back into the environment.
Padma Venkatraman, a chemist involved in the analysis of drug contamination study at Johns Hopkins, comments, "We know that this is an important problem to look at; but we don't have any answers yet, because it's very much an evolving area."
The concern about the contamination problem is mounting. A recent study conducted by the government documented low levels of drug contamination in 139 streams in the United States. Regardless of "low levels" of drug presence in the natural streams, even minuscule amounts of chemical imbalance in aquatic ecosystems can have enormous effects and changes on the life forms that can exist there. In some areas, people's drinking water comes from tainted streams which are assorted with minute amounts of heart medications, anti-depressants, acetaminophen, ibuprofen and diabetes drugs. The presence of these chemicals is small but hardly insignificant because changes in the chemical content in streams pose a great threat of problems in the future for aquatic life and human health.
A team of researchers at Johns Hopkins University produced a list of chemicals that are likely to penetrate the environment and have the potential to cause harm. The team's findings were heard at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society in Orlando. The team conclusions were based on a survey of the 200 most sold and prescribed drugs in the United States. Their conclusion states that antidepressants, anticonvulsants, anticancer drugs and antimicrobials are the pharmaceuticals that are most likely to be found at toxic levels in the environment.
Alongside the traces of over-the-counter drugs, the runoffs from industrial plants join the animal feed from farms which is invested with antibiotics to augment the drug chemicals in nature.
Lynn Roberts, an associate professor in geography and environmental engineering at Johns Hopkins, speculates, "There are a lot of drugs for which we simply do not have enough information to answer that question. There very well could be some pharmaceuticals that pose a human health risk to certain segments of the population such as developing fetuses." Although few drugs have been tested for their effects on fetus development, other drugs are likely to influence the vulnerable fetus that needs a safe and normal environment to grow.
According to U.S. Geological survey in 1999 and 2000, scientists have documented widespread infiltration of seven kinds of contaminants in half of the streams that were tested. This study did not only confirm the potential for pharmaceuticals to permeate into natural water systems, but also veterinary drugs, insecticides and fire retardants.
Scientists commend the identification of contamination, but they also stress the importance of figuring out the potential of the drugs to cause damage. Dana Kolpin, a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) research hydrologist dealing with the contamination study, suggests, "We are not trying to scare anybody here. The whole point was to see if these compounds were getting into streams to begin with, and we found that they are definitely out there." The scientists are careful not to jump to conclusions.
Although the streams are amalgamations of many different kinds of chemicals, the individual contaminants usually exist in the range of one part per billion. One common chemical found in streams is caffeine, the stimulant that keeps America on her feet everyday.
Michael Meyer, a USGS researcher who is also part of the contamination study, states, "You'd have to drink about 10,000 liters of [steam water] to get the amount of caffeine in a cup of coffee, so we're talking about very, very low levels." Notice Meyer is comparing the amount of caffeine in streams to the amount of caffeine humans deal with. The aquatic life in streams are composed of microscopic organisms that are unseen to the naked eye, it does not take much to destroy the conditions tiny organisms live in. The changes in the aquatic ecosystems may trigger upwards and effect larger organisms and eventually humans. Also caffeine is not one of the greatest threats among the many other chemicals flowing around in the streams.
The challenge scientists are facing now is to determine the long-term effects of the presence of these chemicals in streams. Koplin explains the details of this mission, "It's hard enough to isolate the effect of a single compound, but when a fish is swimming around in 30 different things, it's even harder to determine what combinations might cause problems."
Padma Venkatraman further explains the Hopkins research team's objective, "We have tried to make an intelligent guess as to what may be out there. We are certainly don't have enough evidence that most pharmaceuticals pose as a human health risk, although the presence of carcinogens and tetratogens (agents that causes birth defects) even at low concentrations if of potential human health concern."
Scientists are racing to identify problems before a serious catastrophe hits.
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