Brave New World - The Ripple Effect: The Fate of Freshwater in the Twenty-First Century - page 54

popular brands such as Pepsi's Aquafina, Coca-Cola's Dasani, and Nestlé's Nestlé Pure
Life—do not test for pharmaceuticals.
here is a certain irony here. Decades ago, the normal practice was to dispose of
drugs in the trash or burn them. But with the outcry against air pollution, most hospit-
als shut down their incinerators, while landfills grew more discerning about what sort
of drugs they would accept. With disposal options narrowed, hospitals began to dump
old or unused drugs down their toilets and sinks and to recommend that patients do the
same. The AP estimated that the health-care industry sends at least 250 million pounds
of pharmaceuticals down the drain every year.
Hospital waste carries more antibiotics and germs than domestic waste. This worries
researchers, who fear that “drug dumping” into water systems could lead to genetic
mutations that create antibiotic-resistant germs. This is not purely dystopian paranoia.
A study done by the University of Rouen Medical Center in France found that of thirty-
eight wastewater samples, thirty-one of them had the ability to mutate genes.
Spurred by the AP report, the public roused politicians to take action on drugs in wa-
ter supplies. Philadelphia called for federal intervention. Phoenix said it would wait for
the EPA to issue federal standards, but after an outcry decided to test its water quality
immediately. In California, regional water managers formed task forces and implored
customers, “Don't stop drinking your tap water. It's okay to drink.”
Many utilities were caught off guard by the AP report and felt it was sensational. In
Las Vegas, J. C. Davis , of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, told me, “That story
was shameless self-promotion by the AP. This is difficult science, and that report set us
back five years. We test our waters and clean them to a very high degree, and then the
AP comes along and just beats us to death. I'm livid!”
In 2008, Congress held hearings on drug waste in water supplies and angrily deman-
ded regulatory action by the EPA. In 2009, the agency began to research the question of
establishing national standards, while some states debated whether to reopen landfills
for drug disposal. EPA spokeswoman Roxanne Smith said landfilling hazardous drugs
poses little threat to the public, yet pharmaceuticals leach from landfills into waterways,
either through leaks or the intentional release of treated seepage; researchers have de-
tected trace amounts of ibuprofen and carbamazepine, a seizure medication, in water
near landfills.
Incineration “is considered a BMP [best management practice] for today,” says Laura
Brannen , of Houston's Waste Management Healthcare Solutions, “because we don't
really know what the hell to do with the stuff.” Others point out that incineration allows
some contamination to escape into smoke and ash. Rain then “scrubs” pollutants from
the atmosphere and drops them back into the water system.