More recycled water problems - this time in LA ...
Traces Of Prescription Drugs Found In LA Recycled Water
January 30, 2006
LOS ANGELES -- Water quality officials have found traces of resilient prescription drugs in waste water that has been filtered and recycled into a Southern California aquifer for eventual use as drinking water, but the amounts are so small that the health effects are unclear, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.
Drugs including antibiotics, antipsychotics, birth-control hormones, Viagra and Valium routinely turn up in wastewater all over the world because people flush them down their toilets.
But medications have also ended up in Los Angeles County's water supplies because of the region's aggressive efforts to turn treated sewage into drinking water.
The amounts of the drugs may be small and scientists suspect there is little or no human danger. But they say no one knows if there are health hazards from ingesting small doses of drugs continuously over a lifetime.
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Also see - Traces of drugs in recycled water.
posted by Concerned Ratepayer at 9:06 PM
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Traces Of Prescription Drugs Found In LA Recycled Water
January 30, 2006
LOS ANGELES -- Water quality officials have found traces of resilient prescription drugs in waste water that has been filtered and recycled into a Southern California aquifer for eventual use as drinking water, but the amounts are so small that the health effects are unclear, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.
Drugs including antibiotics, antipsychotics, birth-control hormones, Viagra and Valium routinely turn up in wastewater all over the world because people flush them down their toilets. But medications have also ended up in Los Angeles County's water supplies because of the region's aggressive efforts to turn treated sewage into drinking water.
Nearly half a trillion gallons of sewage from three treatment plants have replenished the Central Basin aquifer beneath the San Gabriel Valley east of Los Angeles, which supplies 4 million people with water.
Southern California sewage undergoes some of the world's most rigorous cleansing to remove bacteria and nitrogen, and recycled wastewater added to the drinking water supply meets all government standards. But water officials are discovering the medications as they become capable of detecting smaller amounts of chemicals.
Among the medicines found in local water supplies are small amounts of prescription drugs to treat depression, seizures, high cholesterol, anxiety, infections, inflammation and pain.
Because the medications have been found in very small amounts -- the equivalent of a few drops in an Olympic-sized swimming pool -- scientists suspect there is little or no human danger. But they say no one knows if there are health hazards from ingesting small doses of drugs continuously over a lifetime.
What's more clear are the health effects for fish, frogs and other creatures that spend their entire lives in waterways exposed to drugs.
Christian Daughton, chief of environmental chemistry at the EPA's National Exposure Research Laboratory branch in Las Vegas, said in a 1999 report that medications "could lead to cumulative, insidious, adverse impacts" on aquatic ecosystems, including declining reproduction and survival rates.
In laboratory tests, Prozac has slowed growth and metamorphosis, making tadpoles more vulnerable to predators, according to research by University of Georgia ecotoxicologist Marsha Black. The drug also causes lethargy and slows reproduction in fish and reduces reproductive rates in crustaceans and shellfish.
In British rivers, Nevada's Lake Mead, the Potomac River and elsewhere, male fish are growing female ovarian tissues from exposure to birth-control estrogens and natural hormone excretions in treated sewage.
In November, the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts reported high levels of ibuprofen, naproxen and acetaminophen in raw sewage entering its Whittier Narrows plant, and small concentrations going out.
The antibiotic sulfamethoxazole and anti-cholesterol medication gemfibrozil were found in treated waste at fairly high levels of around one part per billion. Officials found lower levels of the antidepressant fluoxetine, the arthritis drug diclofenac, anti-anxiety and anti-seizure drugs, and estrogens.
Because some people deliberately flush pills, Los Angeles and Orange counties will begin distributing cards to pharmacies in March advising customers to get rid of drugs at hazardous waste roundups or wrap them and put them in the trash.
9:11 PM, January 31, 2006
This is exactly why we should be concerned. There are too many unknowns!
3:13 PM, February 01, 2006
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