Pharmaceutically Active Compounds

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products are finding their way into the environment.

Florence Reynolds, Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities, Water Quality & Treatment Administrator

March 18, 2005

People around the world are consistently using drugs for one reason or another.  We take pills for illnesses and over the counter medications for temporary ailments.  We take hormones, pills for birth control and medication for our hearts (beta-blockers). All of these medications are not absorbed by our bodies; some of it passes through and ends up in the wastewater treatment facilities and the environment. 

Along with these drugs, many products that we use everyday such as plastics, pesticides, DDT, vinclozolin, endosulfan, toxaphene, dieldrin, and DBCP have chemical components that interfere with body systems. The list of chemicals grows when adding  industrial chemicals and byproducts such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dioxins, and phenols that enter our enviornoment.  Detergents, soaps, perfumes, cosmetics, textiles, paints and lubricants are all products that are also implicated. Together these chemicals are labeled pharmaceutically active compounds.  Low levels of these compounds are being detected in the nation’s water-ways particularly below wastewater facilities and there is potential for them to be present in water supplies. Currently there are research studies underway focusing on the implication of trace levels of these chemicals to our health.

The water industry has not been ignoring this immerging issue.  In 1996, pharmaceutically active compounds were listed as a number one issue for research.  A subset of this group of compounds, endocrine disruptors, synthetic and naturally occurring chemicals that affect the balance of normal hormone functions in animals, are being found in the surface waters of both Europe and the United States. Researchers are investigating the significance of these compounds to wildlife, aquatic organisms and humans. There is evidence that pharmaceutically active compounds do have negative effects on aquatic organisms near wastewater treatment plant outfalls, raising questions about wastewater treatment standards and treatment processes. There is no conclusive evidence to indicate any concern over trace levels of these compounds in the nation’s drinking water supplies.

Many communities receive their drinking water supplies from sources downstream from wastewater treatment plant discharges. Salt Lake City is fortunate that it receives it water supplies from high mountain protected watersheds, resulting in high quality raw water entering the City’s drinking water treatment facilities.  The City’s water sources are primarily snow melt without the impact of reclaimed wastewater or animal feed lots above the intakes.  Without these wastewater discharges the potential for finding endocrine disruptors is minimal.   Communities around the country that take water from rivers, downstream of other communities, are more susceptible.  These communities are already faced with other treatment issues and many of them are already using advanced treatment techniques.  

The best way to prevent problems associated with pharmaceutically active compounds is to be careful of how you dispose of pharmaceuticals and personal care products.  Plastics are not inert and need to be disposed of properly. Use the sewage system for the appropriate reasons; the sewer is not a dump all for unwanted materials. Currently the legalities of disposing of unused or outdated drugs and medications are being reviewed to find the best way to dispose of them.  In the meantime, any medications you are disposing of should be double bagged and put in the trash at the time of pickup -- do not flush them down the toilet. Do not take unnecessary medications.  Antibiotics should be used only for the condition they are prescribed for. The wise use and disposing of pharmaceutically active compounds into our environment is something all of us should do.