Water pollution is a silent problem navigating itself within modern America. In a country littered with options for anything and everything, it’s hard to imagine water pollution as a problem. But it is.
Nearly 70% of Americans are on at least one prescription drug, which accounts for a large part of the population. Unfortunately, many of these drugs end up in the nation’s waterways. That includes rivers from sewage treatment plants and groundwater from septic systems. Is this contaminating our drinking water and harming us? It is, and most of us don’t even know it.
Active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) from medications harm the environment and human health. It affects humans through both acute and chronic exposure. It’s likely this polluted water will find its way into water systems — which is damaging.
We’re responsible for the waste of these drugs and for the damage caused by digesting them through contaminated water. But it isn’t only prescription drugs contaminating our water. Things such as sunscreen, lotions, perfume, and cologne are finding their way into our water systems. They wash off our bodies and trickle into water.
Water pollution research is still developing. Plastic pollution in the oceans shows microplastics often found in seafood. Because we consume seafood, these pollutants are later found in human tissues. Microplastics contain chemicals such as BPA, which can cause cancer and fertility issues.
Research about the consequences of water pollution is still ongoing but the known dangers are disturbing.
Pharmaceuticals in Water Supplies
Water pollution is not a new concept. The bottled water industries are well established in the United States. Many of these bottles end up in the ocean since only 23% of plastic bottles are recycled.
About 41 million Americans are exposed to pharmaceuticals in their drinking water. There are several types of drugs and personal care products that trickle into the environment. These personal care products are called PPCPs. The most common one is Diclofenac, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID). This is followed by antibiotics, lipid-lowering agents, antihypertensives, hormones, anxiolytics, and antidepressants.
The concentrations of these drugs and several others range from “parts per billion” to “parts per trillion.” This is a drastic amount, and the effects are unknown. The long-term effects on humans have the most unanswered questions. This is because Americans are becoming more medicated, including the elderly.
Dangerous effects to the ecosystem have already been identified. The discovery of “intersex fish” in the Potomac River surprised everyone, including scientists. Male smallmouth and largemouth bass were carrying immature eggs, leaving scientists baffled as to why this happened. It raised fears that hormone residues were to blame.
Also, there are two trillion pounds of animal waste contaminated with antibiotics and hormones. These get excreted by livestock and poultry. Antibiotics and hormones are fed to animals to force them to grow faster. They also prevent them from getting sick. Obviously, these antibiotics and hormones find their way into groundwater and drinking water. Even if it is not consumed by humans, it will be consumed by a living creature that may suffer adverse effects.
Personal Care Products Are Also in Water Supplies
Humans are the primary consumers of pharmaceuticals. We are responsible for the majority of water pollution. Personal care products are either thrown away or washed off in the shower. They are not disposed of in a manner that is safe for the environment.
Perfumes, lotions, moisturizers, and skincare products all play an unfortunate part in the ongoing water pollution problem. They are used by millions of people daily. Our health is important, but so is the health of our water and the planet.
Means of Entry
Contaminants from PPCPs enter the environment through a couple different routes. Urine contaminated with pharmaceutical ingredients is a primary source. Our bodies don’t metabolize the majority of the drugs we ingest, so this leaves a large amount of it to wind up in streams, rivers, and lakes.
A secondary source of entry is improper disposal of old and leftover medications. Many of these medications are flushed, sending a disturbing amount of chemicals to our waters.
Health Effects on Humans
Currently, there is little evidence that PPCPs in water is harming humans. It is important to remember though that the research is ongoing. To say the effects to humans are unknown or to ignore them could be detrimental.
There are inconsistencies about methods used to determine sustainable concentrations of active pharmaceutical compounds. Not all health endpoints were analyzed for calculating health risks because of limited time and resources, so critical information was missed. Obtaining this information is key. It would give us a much better picture of the hazards we face from drinking contaminated water.
Having a lack of toxicity data doesn’t equate to being non-toxic. There could be three explanations for the lack of data:
- There are not enough studies.
- The concentrations are too low to detect, making it difficult to study.
- There are no adverse effects on humans.
The reality is highly unlikely there are no negative health effects to humans. Coming into contact with pharmaceutically polluted water is detrimental. There is enough evidence that pharmaceuticals in water affect aquatic life, including fish. Millions of people consume fish every year. The pharmaceuticals the fish ingest have moved into our digestive systems.
Not to mention the microplastics also consumed by fish. Their bodies are not built for breaking down this foreign material. Think about the fish you have eaten throughout your life. Can you imagine how much pollutants and plastic are inside you?
No Regulations
Facilities that treat water to make it drinkable are not designed to remove pharmaceuticals from it. Neither are sewage treatment plants. Fortunately, when the water is treated some of the contamination is removed.
Chlorine kills bacteria found in water. However, it only appears to deteriorate the concentrations of several medications by 75%. This leaves at least 25% of the water contaminated and polluted, which we ingest.
Lack of Long-Term Data
Prescription drugs are a new concept in human history. Medicine wasn’t used to treat pain and cure diseases until the late 1800s. And the first record of pharmaceuticals in the environment was in 1976.
This means that for a long time, the effects of pharmaceutical pollution weren’t studied. And the research on the long-term effects on human health still has a long way to go. Prescription drugs are here to stay, and studying their effects on the environment and human health should be a priority.
Environmental Effects
While we currently lack data on human health effects, there is enough evidence to support that water polluted by pharmaceuticals affects the ecosystem. Fish are particularly affected, and fish are consumed daily by millions of people.
Birth control pills, postmenopausal hormone treatments, and estrogen are found in polluted waters. These, along with other pharmaceuticals, contaminate water. The exposure to these hormones has had a feminizing effect on male fish. More female and intersex fish have been found upstream and downstream in the Potomac River. This is likely due to the higher levels of estrogen.
Fish are being affected at a monstrous level. The food chain is out of balance, including the top of the food chain — humans. There is no telling how much this is changing our bodies. Our genetic makeup could be also be affected. The fact is we don’t know because the research is currently not there yet, which is why supporting this research is vital.
Fish are a much larger organism than plankton. The levels of pharmaceutical contaminants have been generally low. It is harder to measure something as small as a plankton compared to a largemouth bass.
It’s possible that it may take a few generations for the effects of pollution to show up enough to be noticeable. If this is the case, then it may take a few decades to notate even more severe consequences.
Intersex fish created because of exposure to PPCPs is convincing evidence that water pollution is a serious issue. Not only is this affecting our environment, but it is also harming humans, especially those who eat fish.
Acute Toxicity & Chronic Exposure
In a 7 year study, it was found that ethinylestradiol adversely affected a fish population. It affected it to the point of near extinction.
In an acute study, rainbow trout were observed for 28 days after being exposed to different concentrations of diclofenac. Changes in their tissues that may have been characteristics of diseases were noted in their kidneys and gills. Consider these potentially dangerous effects are occurring in our water system. What unknown problems are affecting the food chain?
Terminal Conditions
Long-term exposure, even in trace amounts, subtly presents itself. It appears as an irreversible or terminal condition. The amounts appear in such low quantities that the effects may not be obvious. The effects may not show up until generations later when the exposure to polluted water is correlated with mutations. Mutations that affect sustainability and ecosystems. This can cause a chain reaction of reduced food and create more competition for food, eliminating a species entirely.
Preventing Pharmaceutical Waste
It’s pretty common to toss your old drugs down the kitchen sink drain or flush them in the toilet. But both of these methods are harmful.
It’s understandable to want to dispose of drugs. We should want to keep them out of the hands of an addict, child, or animal. But there are other ways to properly rid yourself of them without polluting the water.
Only buying the drugs you need is an easy way to rid the possibility of eventually ending up with expired drugs. Buying in bulk may lead to an overflow of prescription drugs that will have to be disposed of at some point.
You can toss your expired or unwanted drugs in the trash, but be mindful of your technique. Crush them into a powder and seal them in a plastic bag with coffee grounds, cat litter, or another material with a strong and unappealing scent. This will prevent children and animals from tearing into the bag and accidentally ingesting a drug that may kill them.
Mindfulness of Waste (Don’t Flush!)
It’s tempting to flush old drugs down the toilet in case they get into the wrong hands, but this is actually a bad idea. Be mindful of how you dispose of your pharmaceuticals and find alternative ways to dispose of them.
Drug take-back programs will accept unused medications. This keeps them from polluting the water. It avoids the unlawful distribution of drugs, particularly painkillers and narcotics.
Raising Awareness, Starting With You
Although we have committed the grave error of polluting our water, it is not too late. Being more mindful of the ingredients used on our bodies and how we dispose of PPCPs is important. We can each play a vital role in eliminating water and pharmaceutical pollution.
Everyone has used medication, or lotion, or perfume. Simply educating your friends and family of the devastating effects of pollution is a monumental first step.
We can save the world, one educated consumer at a time.
