Medicines show up in water | delawareonline.com | The News Journal

Tiny traces of medical hormones, antidepressants, antibiotics and other drugs are trickling into the drinking water of homes and businesses across Delaware, a new Division of Public Health study has found.
The drug residues turned up in more than half the Delaware water samples taken from 20 public water sources and 95 farm irrigation wells last year.
Among the most common contaminants in Delaware's public taps: caffeine, the antibiotic sulfamethoxazole, the painkiller ibuprofen, a medical-imaging aid called iopromide and estrogens.
Also found: antidepressants, cholesterol drugs, nicotine and triclosan, an ingredient widely used in soaps and antibacterial hand cleaners, but now under investigation as a potential disruptor of human endocrine systems.
The release of the information was prompted by a formal request by The News Journal.
"At these extremely low levels, it's not expected that there would be a health impact, but then, nobody's sure of that," said Edward G. Hallock, program administrator for Delaware's Office of Drinking Water. "When you add three or four compounds, even at extremely low levels, we're not sure whether there's an effect."
Those questions already are circulating in Congress, where some lawmakers recently pressed the Environmental Protection Agency to look closer at the cumulative effect of low-level but long-term exposure to toxic compounds, and frequent exposure to cocktails of pharmaceuticals at trace levels.
Recent studies have tied antidepressant levels in fish brains to water pollutants, Kolpin said. Others have found that chemicals from human activities may be disrupting fish responses to predators, making them more vulnerable.
Last year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reported that up to 82 percent of male bass in the Potomac River had "intersex" symptoms, or female cells in their male reproductive organs. Scientists said the symptoms were "an indicator of exposure to estrogens or chemicals that mimic the activity of natural hormones."
In the Delaware study, the Wilmington, United Water Delaware and Newark systems, supplied from local creeks, had the highest concentrations, but pharmaceuticals and personal care product residues were detected in all three counties. Pharmaceuticals and hormones are believed to pass into the environment because sewage treatment plants were never designed to capture or break down the chemicals.

List getting long

Windybush resident Theresa Cody said Monday the news adds another reason for her uneasiness about our drinking water.
"It does slightly concern me -- that's why we have filtered water, and that's why we drink a lot of bottled water," Cody said. "I'm more concerned about industrial contaminants and things like that. The list is getting too long. Antibiotics in our meat, all kinds of things."
Delaware officials are worried enough that plans call for a stepped-up campaign to discourage flushing of medications and other medicinal chemicals in toilets. Development of disposal alternatives or drop-off programs also are under consideration.
"From what I've seen from other states, I don't think that we're any different than what's being found across the country, as far as surface water and shallow groundwater," Hallock said.
Although results from individual wells and water intakes have not been released, a summary of findings noted that 17 different drugs were found in 101 samples of treated and untreated water from public systems. Tests of 95 shallow farm irrigation wells detected 14 compounds. Some samples had as many as nine different substances.
Researchers have pointed to discharges from sewage-treatment plants and septic systems, sewage sludges, wastewater-fed irrigation systems and landfills as likely sources. Concentrations were in the parts-per-billion and parts-per-trillion range, however, far below levels in prescription doses.
Delaware's study, which cost $200,000, tested for 23 compounds, but many others not on the list are viewed as potentially harmful to humans, including flame retardants, plasticizers used in bottles, insect repellents and other medications and hormones.
Officials are preparing a report on the sampling and analysis commissioned by Delaware's Cancer Consortium.
Dana W. Kolpin, a researcher with the U.S. Geological Survey's Iowa Water Science Center, said scientists are concerned about the human and environmental consequences. In addition to flushed-away medications, human wastes carry away medicines not used by the body, Kolpin said. Although some may be trapped in sewage sludge, they can be released to groundwater as sludges are reused as farm fertilizers. Even landfilled drugs can eventually find their way into drinking water, since liquids emerging from modern dumps are often captured and sent through sewage plants.
"It's not because of any negligence by treatment plants," Kolpin said. "These compounds haven't been a part of the [treatment] equation, and they're still not regulated."
The USGS and the EPA are preparing new studies of contamination levels before and after treatment, Kolpin said, with a goal of helping to develop new ways to reduce releases of the chemicals.

Filter claims unverified

While some home tap-filter producers claim their systems can capture antibiotics and other contaminants, Kolpin said he was unaware of any that have undergone comprehensive, independent testing.
"They may or may not do something out of the box, depending on how well they've been maintained," Kolpin said. "But we've never done studies. There's a lot we don't know, just because we're trying to catch up on the products that are getting through."
The Brandywine is likely the largest carrier of pharmaceutical contaminants, because it receives treated wastewater from multiple sources as it courses through Pennsylvania, past Downingtown, Coatesville and West Chester.
University of Delaware professor and state Water Supply Coordinator Gerald Kauffman said that about 60 wastewater-treatment plants of varying sizes discharge into tributaries of the Brandywine, Wilmington's sole regular source of water. During past droughts, treated sewage and the trace contaminants it carries accounted for as much as 15 percent of all water reaching the city's treatment plant.
"Until we know more about it, in terms of developing methods of treatment, it's best to limit the amount of pharmaceuticals that get into the water supply by the very simple method of not flushing it, and making sure it's packaged for disposal."
"The other thing that's being talked about is getting pharmaceutical companies involved in disposal of their products, just as other industries are," Kauffman said. By Jeff Montgomery for The News Journal 27 April 2010 Contact Jeff Montgomery at 678-4277 or jmontgomery@delawareonline.com.

Guangzhou studying light pollution fees

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Light pollution causes a decrease on sexual function, eye diseases, stress, anxiety and other problems; the province of Guangzhou is considering a fee for light pollution...the details are not known and are going to be public as soon as the government has a plan on how to implement it

Neon signs and billboards may soon be restricted

The provincial capital of South China's Guangdong province is expected to take the lead in collecting light pollution fees in the country.

Sources with the Guangzhou municipal price bureau said they are studying the feasibility of collecting light pollution fees and are working to prepare the first phase of such a program.

But the city's officials would not reveal details on how and when the light pollution fees will be charged.

"We will make it public once it has been decided," said an official who declined to be identified.

Officials from the Guangzhou bureau of environmental protection also refused to comment on the issue, saying the bureau now collects fees for only four kinds of pollution: waste gas, sewage, solid trash and noise, according to the relevant laws and regulations.

The plan to charge light pollution fees is coming as a result of the light pollution becoming worse in the southern metropolis, dubbed "a city without night".

Medical research has proven that excessive light surrounding the human body causes a variety of adverse health effects, including increased headaches, stress, and anxiety, as well as a decrease in sexual function. The incidence of eye disease is also higher in urban residents than in country residents due to light pollution.

The normal light intensity of illumination is about 15 lumens. The light illuminance in the city's busy Beijing Road, however, reaches more than 1,000 lumens, 60 times more than the standard level, said Li Mingguang, a doctor from Guangzhou Scientific Research Institute of Environmental Protection.

"Other business districts, streets, bars and public entertainment venues also have been reported to cause serious light pollution in the city," Li said.

In addition to road lamps, the sources of light pollution come from the city's large number of neon lights and advertisement boards. The glass walls of skyscrapers further reflect strong lights into nearby residential houses.

However, Li said relevant departments will have difficulty in collecting light pollution fees because they lack regulations and standards to define light pollution.

He urged the relevant departments to quickly introduce these regulations and standards.

Li Jianji, a member of Guangdong Society of Astronomy, is in favor of limiting the time for switching on the city's neon lights and lights on advertisement boards to reduce light pollution.

"All the city's neon lights and advertisement lights should be switched off at 10 or 10:30 pm every day," Li said.

Some of the neon lights should be allowed only on weekends or public holidays, he added.

Currently most of the city's neon lights, advertisement lights and decorative lights remain on overnight seven days a week.

Cheng Chenghua, a white-collar worker, said light pollution has become a more serious problem in Guangzhou compared with a few years ago.

"Collecting light pollution fees should be an effective way to help battle the light pollution," Cheng told China Daily.

Light pollution is particularly bad on both banks of the Pearl River in the downtown area, where there are many neon lights, billboards and decorative lights, Cheng said.