With more than 30 years’ experience in the residential and commercial water treatment space, Mark Nelson is a Class 1 Drinking-Water Operator and a CBWA (Canadian Bottled Water Association) Certified Plant Operator. As founder and president of Nelson Water in Ottawa, Mark focuses on dealing with challenging water treatment system designs for problem water. He also heads the largest water bottling plant in the city of Ottawa with a delivery network throughout the Valley.
With the media reports about water quality issues, it is easy to feel a little overwhelmed. So, are these issues just media hype or should you be concerned about pharmaceutical runoff in your water supply? There is a complex answer to this question, so we’ll explore the topic in more detail here.
What is Meant by Pharmaceuticals?
The term pharmaceuticals refers to compounds containing natural or synthetic chemicals. These are found in over the counter therapeutics, veterinary drugs, and prescription medicines. Pharmaceuticals consist of a number of active ingredients designed to offer health benefits. For this reason, there are strict regulatory processes that govern these chemicals, including stringent testing to assess safety and efficacy before they are released on to the market.
Since these processes are well established, pharmaceuticals tend to be easier to characterise compared to many other contaminants.
How Can Pharmaceutical Runoff Enter Water Supplies?
There are a number of ways that pharmaceutical runoff can enter water supplies. This includes:
- Improper Disposal:
This is the most likely reason why pharmaceutical chemicals can enter your water supply. Medicines flushed down the toilet or sink can allow these chemicals to enter rivers, streams, and lakes that feed drinking water supplies. This is not exclusive to human medication as animals, particularly farm animals, are often prescribed large doses of pharmaceuticals by vets. When these are improperly disposed of, it allows more significant amounts of chemicals to enter the water supply.
- Incomplete Metabolization:
Not all people can properly metabolize different types of medications, so remnants of the medication can enter the water supply through human waste. Non digested hormones and chemicals can be excreted out of the body and disposed of into the sewage system.
- CAFOs:
CAFOs or Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations are commonly referred to as “factory farms.” These farms use steroids, antibiotics and growth hormones to treat the animals. Certain animals can only metabolize a percentage of these pharmaceuticals, so spills from a manure storage lagoon or runoff from manure fertilized fields can contribute to pharmaceuticals entering the water supply.
- Healthcare Facilities Disposal:
Similar to the improper disposal discussed above, healthcare facilities can specifically contribute to water pollution. Many hospitals have on site pharmacies with arrangements to return any unused drugs to manufacturers for disposal or credit. Unfortunately, smaller clinics, nursing homes, and other healthcare facilities don’t have this arrangement and may flush medications away after a patient has been discharged from the facility. Additionally, the rules for disposing of opioid based medications has encouraged healthcare facilities to dispose of all leftover medications down the drain.
Is it Really a Common Problem?
Although this may seem bad, you may still wonder if this issue is media hype and ask whether it really is a common problem. In fact, an AP investigation in the United States found that there were traces of anticonvulsants, hormone medications, antibiotics and mood stabilizers in the drinking water supplies for over 41 million Americans. This highlights that we could have a similar problem here in Canada.
Over the last decade, traces of pharmaceutical drugs have appeared throughout the water cycle including wastewater, groundwater, and surface water sources.
Studies have shown that estrogen and other pharmaceuticals have created a feminising effect on fish. This has a massive impact on the ecosystem as female to male ratios are dramatically affected. Estrogen in the water supplies can be a result of post menopausal hormone treatment, birth control pills, and dairy farming activities. Other research studies have shown popular antidepressant medicines to be present in the brain tissue of fish swimming downstream from a wastewater treatment plant. As a result of these wildlife studies, research has begun to test for the effect on human health.
Unfortunately, since your drinking water is likely to be sourced from the groundwater or surface water such as lakes, reservoirs, and rivers, pharmaceuticals could be lingering in your supplies.
Monitoring the Problem
There is no single agency or group tasked with the responsibility of monitoring the quality of drinking water supplies. This includes the monitoring of traces of pharmaceuticals in the water.
While Canada and the United States have some of the safest water in the world, it is still crucial that drinking water is monitored for health and safety. Of course, if you have a private well water supply, you will need to assume responsibility for this task yourself.
Reducing Drinking Water Contaminants
Even if it possible to monitor pharmaceutical levels in water supplies, you need to know how to deal with the situation. While it is possible to do your part and ensure that any unwanted or unused medications are properly disposed of, you need to have confidence that your water is not compromised.
Fortunately, there are two effective treatment methods. Reverse Osmosis is readily available in domestic water treatment systems. The semi permeable membrane can remove 99.9 percent of contaminants from water supplies. Since the contaminant molecules are larger than a water molecule, water is passed through the membrane and contaminants are left behind. This makes RO systems effective for removing viruses, bacteria, heavy metals, and many chemicals.
Another treatment option is ozonation. This involves water filtration without using harsh chemicals such as chlorine. It can be used to not only disinfect water supplies, but also reduce contaminant levels. The ozone generators use chemical and electrolytic reactions to create energy. Clean, dry air is then passed through this electric discharge, creating an ozone concentration. As water is passed through a vacuum tube, ozone gas is pulled into the water, treating the water.
Pharmaceuticals in water supplies respond no differently to treatment than organic chemicals. So, while conventional treatment processes may reduce pharmaceuticals by approximately 50 percent, these more advanced treatment methods can achieve a higher removal rate.
So, if you are concerned about prescription drugs in your water supply, you should speak to a water treatment professional. A specialist technician can test your water supply to determine contaminant levels including pharmaceuticals and recommend treatment options best suited to the characteristics of your water.