{"id":658,"date":"2017-01-30T13:17:13","date_gmt":"2017-01-30T13:17:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/citizenscientist\/?p=658"},"modified":"2017-01-30T13:17:13","modified_gmt":"2017-01-30T13:17:13","slug":"your-water-on-drugs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/citizenscientist\/your-water-on-drugs\/","title":{"rendered":"Your Water on Drugs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Clean Water Act focused on water pollution from human sewage outflow, which has now been markedly reduced across the nation.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Later we realized that the effective control of water pollution also demands removal of nitrogen and phosphorus, derived from sewage degradation.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Many sewage treatment plants now include tanks to remove nitrate by denitrification and to remove dissolved phosphorus by complexing it with other compounds.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Still, nitrogen and phosphorus are problematic, causing hypoxic zones to develop in lakes and coastal waters. <\/span>(See Citizen Scientist <\/span>http:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/citizenscientist\/hypoxia\/<\/span><\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Now a new class of water pollutants perplexes those who design and manage sewage treatment operations\u2014the residues of drugs and personal care products.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>With a visit to a local drugstore, one can appreciate the volume of pharmaceuticals that taken by the American public on a regular basis.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Many of these are not fully degraded by our own metabolism, primarily in the liver, so significant quantities are excreted in urine.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Others are too frequently flushed down the toilet when we no longer need them or they have passed their expiration date.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Other drugs, which we apply to our skin in soaps, antibacterial lotions and insect repellents, are simply washed off.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Sewage treatment plants were never designed to handle these compounds, so they pass through the various treatment procedures and are released to natural waterways.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Some residues also pass through septic systems.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Analysis of runoff waters in southern California and Baltimore, Maryland reveal drug residues, including estrogens and amphetamines.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>It is likely that the organisms in many streams across the U.S. are bathed in a weak solution of birth control pills, caffeine, hypertension blockers, and lithium.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>These join pesticides and flame-retardants in a complex toxic mix, which we understand only poorly. <\/span><\/p>\n

Even at low concentrations, drug residues have measureable effects on the stream-bottom algae and fishes in aquatic ecosystems.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>At concentrations less than one part per billion, amphetamines reduce the growth of stream algae.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Even lower concentrations of estrogens led to the feminization of male fishes in a lake experiment in Canada, so their reproduction ceased. <\/span><\/p>\n

It is easy to see how drug-take-back-programs can reduce the disposal of unwanted drugs in sewage waters, but the amounts excreted by patients following their doctor\u2019s prescriptions are more difficult and costly to control.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>The documented effects of water-borne drug residues on fishes should give us some concern.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Some of these same waters are tapped as a source of drinking water for humans living downstream of the initial point of release, and some of the same compounds with effects on fishes can disrupt\u00a0our own endocrine hormones. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

References<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Kay, P., S.R. Hughes, J.R. Ault, A.E. Ashcroft, and L.E. Brown. 2017.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Widespread, routine occurrence of pharmaceuticals in sewage effluent, combined sewer overflows and receiving waters.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Environmental Pollution 220: 1447-1455. <\/span><\/p>\n

Kidd, K.A., P.J. Blanchfield, K.H. Mills, V.P. Palace, R.E. Evans, J.M. Lazorchak, and R.W. Flick. 2007.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Collapse of a fish population after exposure to a synthetic estrogen.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104: 8897-8901.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Kummerer, K. 2010.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Pharmaceuticals in the environment.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Annual Review of Environment and Resources 35: 57-76.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lambert, M.R., G.S.J. Giller, D. K. Skelly and R.G. Bribiescas. 2016.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Septic systems, but not sanitary sewer lines, are associated with elevated estradiol in male frog metamorphs from suburban ponds.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>General and Comparative Endrocrinology 232: 109-114.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lee, S.S., A.M. Paspalof, D.D. Snow, E.K. Richmond, E.J. Rosi-Marshall and J.J. Kelly. 2016.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Occurrence and potential biological effects of amphetamine on stream communities.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Environmental Science and Technology 50:9727-9735.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Maruya, K.A., N.G. Dodder, A. Sengupta, D.J. Smith, J.M. Lyons, T.T. Heil and J.E. Drewes.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>2016.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Multimedia screening of contaminants of emerging concern (CECS) in coastal urban watersheds in southern California (USA).<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Environmental<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Toxicology and Chemistry 35: 1986-1994. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Rosi-Marshall, E.J. and T.V. Royer. 2012. Pharmaceutical compounds and ecosystem function: an emerging research challenge for aquatic ecologists. Ecosystems. DOI: 10.1007\/s10021-012-9553-z.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Rosi-Marshall, E.J., D. Snow, S.L. Bartelt-Hunt, A. Paspalol, and J.L. Tank. 2015.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>A review of ecological effects and environmental fate of illicit drugs in aquatic ecosystems.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Journal of Hazardous Materials 282:18-26.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is likely that the organisms in many streams across the U.S. are bathed in a weak solution of birth control pills, caffeine, hypertension blockers, and lithium.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":517,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[114,85,5,100,97,91,96],"tags":[288,289,287,290],"coauthors":[6],"class_list":["post-658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biogeochemistry","category-environmental-health","category-faculty","category-lakes-and-streams","category-waste","category-water","category-water-pollution","tag-drugs","tag-personal-care-products","tag-pharmaceuticals","tag-sewage-treatment"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5KxUl-aC","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/citizenscientist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/citizenscientist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/citizenscientist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/citizenscientist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/517"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/citizenscientist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=658"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/citizenscientist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":660,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/citizenscientist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658\/revisions\/660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/citizenscientist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/citizenscientist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/citizenscientist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/citizenscientist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}