Pharmaceutical Industry Should Be Held Accountable for Polluting Water

With all the talk about drug take back programs partly because of the known environmental problems caused by improper handling of expired or unwanted drugs; why not talk about forcing the pharmaceutical industry to keep pharmaceuticals out of water?

The take back programs bring awareness and perhaps a safe place to dispose of expired and unwanted medications for consumers, but what about the manufacturing process. Shouldn't we stop manufacturers from polluting our waterways with chemical laden effluent before laying a big guilt trip on medication consumers about their disposal practices?

Most Contaminants Come From Manufacturing Effluent

A revealing United States Geological Survey study, released in 2010, demonstrates the relatively small amount of drugs in our waterways that the end of life stage of medications accounts for. According to an American Water Works accounting of the study, it includes a five-year research project comparing levels of medication received at three New York wastewater treatment plants. Two of these plants receive more than 20 percent of their water after it has passed through a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant. The third treatment facility has no pharmaceutical factories upstream. The water received at these three treatment plants was also compared to data from 23 other plants around the United States. Researchers found the maximum pharmaceutical levels in the 24 treatment plants not receiving water from medical manufacturers to be around less than one part per billion, while the two downstream from pharmaceutical manufacturers had ten to 1,000 times that amount.

Other studies have shown, as expected, higher amounts of medical waste in water that runs through a hospital. Hospitals commonly dispose of medications by flushing them, and there are likely increased pharmaceutical chemicals in human waste coming from hospitals.

Industry Initiatives

The Pharmaceutical industry doesn't have being eco-friendly at the top of their list but there are some efforts to green up the industry. One such effort-termed ecopharmabuilding--stems from the EU's Eco-innovation initiative. The goals of the consortium according to a European Commission website are to "build a sustainable building for pharmaceutical activities" and provide "eco-innovative" solutions to reduce the environmental impact of the life cycle of pharmaceuticals. According to their website, the encapsulation and storage of pharmaceuticals is one aspect of the life cycle of medications that is being researched. Perhaps one-day industries will be held to the same standards consumers are when it comes to keeping pharmaceuticals out of water.

References:

American Water Works

European Commission