Avelient BioPharm Blog

Drinking Others’ Prescriptions

I was at a networking meeting the other day and speaking to a networking colleague of mine about my son. He had been sick with a scratchy throat and low-grade fever, not eating as well as he normally does, and we were understandably concerned. This woman, who happens to be a registered nurse, asked if he was drinking plenty of liquids to keep him hydrated. I responded in the affirmative, because while his appetite had tapered, his thirst hadn’t, and she assured me keeping that thirst quenched, especially with water, was more important than any food he could consume. A dehydrated child is at much higher risk of hospitalization and much more quickly than one who isn’t eating.

Later in that networking meeting, another colleague announced that it had recently been discovered that drinking water is contaminated with trace amounts of a number of both prescription and over-the-counter drugs. I had heard the same thing earlier in the week, but it wasn’t accompanied by the type of fanfare that I would have expected from such a discovery. While I was getting my car serviced this morning, then, I searched the internet for the article, and in fact found an AP probe into the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, including some of us in New Jersey (eek!).(1)

In fact, the amount of drugs found in the drinking supplies is minute, only measured in parts per billion or trillion, probably not enough to have any kind of immediate substantial effect. But the problem is the wide variety of drugs that do exist in the supply, from over-the-counter ibuprofen to antibiotics and mood stabilizers, and their long-term effect on human health.

The drugs are being delivered to our reservoirs and other water sources through our own waste. When a person takes a drug, only a certain percentage of that drug is absorbed by the body, and the remainder is flushed both out of a person’s system and subsequently down a toilet. Sewage treatment plants purify the water and discharge it back into reservoirs, streams and lakes. Some of that water is then cleansed again by drinking water treatment plants and piped to consumers, where the cycle begins anew. At no point in the current process is the water tested, or filtered, for residue drugs, and while this may not be a problem for a few years of exposure, scientists and researchers are concerned about the long-term health effects.

Here are some of the key results that the AP was able to ascertain:

• Officials in Philadelphia said testing there discovered 56 pharmaceuticals or byproducts in treated drinking water, including medicines for pain, infection, high cholesterol, asthma, epilepsy, mental illness and heart problems. Sixty-three pharmaceuticals or byproducts were found in the city’s watersheds.
• Anti-epileptic and anti-anxiety medications were detected in a portion of the treated drinking water for 18.5 million people in Southern California.
• Researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey analyzed a Passaic Valley Water Commission drinking water treatment plant, which serves 850,000 people in Northern New Jersey, and found a metabolized angina medicine and the mood-stabilizing carbamazepine in drinking water.
• A sex hormone was detected in San Francisco’s drinking water.
• The drinking water for Washington, D.C., and surrounding areas tested positive for six pharmaceuticals.
• Three medications, including an antibiotic, were found in drinking water supplied to Tucson, Ariz.(2

Because extensive testing isn’t done by most of the plants that filter this water, the AP suspects that the situation may be worse than what has been discovered so far. Not so much in terms of amounts of these pharmaceuticals in the water, but in terms of their diversity. And because federal regulations do not require trace drug testing, all can claim they adhere to the rules set by the government.

The article provides an extensive analysis of the problem and indicates this is not something that is easily escaped. Bottled water, ground water, even water from other countries could be contaminated. The major contributors to the problem is humans, but as veterinary health increases its use of prescription medication for both pets and livestock, they are also generating waste that delivers trace amounts of their medication into the ground.

People like me are likely to be the most upset about this kind of development, because I’ve made an effort in my life to only use medications when absolutely necessary. I feel frustrated that the decision may not be mine to make, and as the problem worsens, both my children and the children of my friends will have a greater exposure than we ever had. And the fact that there is no realistic way to avoid exposure — neither bottled nor tap water are immune to this problem — makes me wonder who is responsible and to whom we should turn for answers.

Granted, I’ve been drinking the same water for years, and I haven’t had any ill effects. The truth is, nobody knows whether the drugs in our water are hurting or helping us.  But how could we have let things get so bad that now it’s something we can’t avoid?

How do you feel about it?

(1) See ” AP Probe Finds Drugs in Drinking Water,” By Jeff Donn, Martha Mendoza and Justin Pritchard, the Associated Press web site, March 9, 2008.

(2) See ” AP Probe Finds Drugs in Drinking Water,” By Jeff Donn, Martha Mendoza and Justin Pritchard, the Associated Press web site, March 9, 2008.