A teacup of tranquilizers?

Only a turn of the tap away

By SANDY LONG

NATION — Care for a cup of anti-convulsants? Maybe a mug of mood elevators? How about a sip of sex hormones? Just turn on the tap.

A bewildering array of pharmaceuticals have found their way into the drinking water of 41 million Americans, according to an Associated Press (AP) investigation, and they are creating a complex cocktail of unknown consequences.

The five-month inquiry revealed that drugs are present in the water supplies for 24 major metropolitan areas, including New York City, which derives its water from upstate reservoirs partially located within the Upper Delaware Region. The quantities, measured in parts per billion or trillion, are well below medical dosage levels. But scientists are increasingly concerned about their presence—and possible interactions and impacts.

“The emerging science is showing us that background levels of exquisitely small exposure can have additive effects, and such drugs can potentiate one another. We don’t know enough about the impacts of long-term low-level exposure to such chemicals,” said biologist Dr. Sandra Steingraber, a distinguished visiting scholar at Ithaca College.

The AP investigation included the review of hundreds of scientific reports, analysis of federal drinking water databases, visits to environmental study sites and treatment plants and interviews with more than 230 officials, academics and scientists. The nation’s 50 largest cities and a dozen other major water providers were surveyed, as well as smaller providers in all 50 states.

Among the results was the discovery of 56 pharmaceuticals or byproducts in Philadelphia’s drinking water. The investigation also revealed that many major water providers such as those for Boston, Phoenix, Baltimore and Miami, do not test for pharmaceuticals.

Closer to home

New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection (NYC DEP), which provides water for nine million people, does not test drinking water for pharmaceuticals. When the New York state health department and the USGS tested its upstate source waters, they discovered trace amounts of heart medicine, infection fighters, estrogen, anti-convulsants, a mood stabilizer and a tranquilizer, as reported by the AP.

New York City water officials issued a statement asserting that the city’s drinking water meets “all federal and state regulations regarding drinking water quality in the watershed and the distribution system.” Those regulations do not address pharmaceuticals in trace amounts.

The risk to human health is uncertain, although evidence is mounting that such drugs adversely affect wildlife, causing feminization of fish exposed to estrogenic chemicals, for example.

In addition to such findings, Steingraber points out that prior to birth, all mammals are exceptionally vulnerable to chemicals, particularly the hormonal system, which functions at the level of parts per million as bodies are assembled. “Hormones are like the directors of this orchestration of the body,” said Steingraber, who lamented the lack of regulation of chemicals in drinking water, particularly as it relates to the role of timing. “The timing of exposure is something our regulatory system is not taking into account,” she said.

The potential effects to humans are beginning to be revealed at the cellular level. According to the AP study, laboratory research found that “small amounts of medication have affected human embryonic kidney cells, human blood cells and human breast cancer cells. The cancer cells proliferated too quickly; the kidney cells grew too slowly; and the blood cells showed biological activity associated with inflammation.”

Current water filtration practices are intended primarily to remove germs. Testing for the presence of pharmaceuticals is not required by the federal government. In addition, many major water providers add chemicals such as chlorine and fluoride to water, thereby increasing the complexity of the chemical mix.

Sipping from the same cup

Pharmaceuticals typically enter waterways through municipal, agricultural and industrial wastewater sources when human and veterinary medicines are excreted or eliminated through residential sewage or farm runoff. “For one thing, it reveals what a medicalized society we’ve become,” said Steingraber.

Even more alarming is the nagging realization that the issue reaches beyond that of pharmaceuticals in our drinking water, as Steingraber points out. Personal care products, plasticizers, pesticides and other household products find their way down our drains, through our septic systems or sewage treatment plants, into our rivers and ultimately may end up in our drinking water.

“Our own toilets are the headwaters of America,” said Steingraber. “Downstream, someone else is drinking our drugs, while we’re drinking those coming from upstream.”

Many questions must be answered as governmental agencies and water providers work to identify and implement strategies for addressing these issues. See the next issue of The River Reporter to learn what’s being done.