Drugs in Drinking Water: A New EPA Study Finds More Than We Knew

New Republic...We know how the drugs get there: Our bodies release them when we urinate or flush old drugs down the toilet. And it's well known by now that pharmaceuticals are affecting fish, frogs and lobsters­—small amounts of estrogen cause male fish to develop eggs, for instance. But the impact on human health is unclear. Although research on pharmaceuticals in the water supply began almost a decade ago, no one seems to know which compounds need to be removed or how to remove them from the water safely. And no one seems to know which government agency should step forward and take action.

"All of these drugs out there on the market are going to be discharged into the environment and we don't know what the effects are, because there's no requirement to do an assessment on the front end," said Nick Schroeck, executive director of the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center in Detroit.

"We're not trying to scare anyone, but we need to know what these chemical compounds will do to the environment and what are the long-term effects for humans. No one seems to know."

The new study, which will be released in January in the journalEnvironmental Pollution, was obtained by The New Republic. Conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency, it is the largest study of water coming out of wastewater treatment plants.

It looked at samples from 50 large-size wastewater treatment plants nationwide and tested for 56 drugs including oxycodone, high-blood pressure medications, and over-the-counter drugs like Tylenol and ibuprofen. More than half the samples tested positive for at least 25 of the drugs monitored, the study said. High blood pressure medications appeared in the highest concentrations and most frequently.

"We were surprised to find that many drugs occurring across all the wastewater plants," said Mitchell Kostich, the EPA research biologist who led the study. "We were also surprised to see so many drugs of a particular class—the high blood pressure medications—appear at those levels across the board."

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