U.S. Geological Survey scientists testing water downstream from treatment plants who handle sewage from pharmaceutical plants have found opiates, barbituates and tranquilizers in the samples. Testing of water downstream from plants that do not handle waste from drug plants had significantly less residue. Naturally, the drug companies are denying their wastewater is a significant source of the medical residue.
In a separate study the E.P.A. tested a wastewater facility that handled sewage from a Pfizer plant in Michigan. The samples contained unusually high concentrations of the antibiotic lincomycin which in minute concentrations has been shown to make human cancer cells multiply. Some biologists warn that chronic exposure to these types of chemicals could be hazardous to pregnant women and infants.
These two American studies echo the concerns raised by recent similar testing in Switzerland, India, China and Taiwan where major pharmaceutical plants’ manufacturing processes discharge thousands of gallons of wastewater each day. If current environmental, health and safety regulations are not strong enough to protect us from this potential hazard from our ordinary drinking water sources, we should press our legislators to make sure these concerns are considered in the ongoing revamping of the USDA and EPA under the Obama administration.
Richard J. Arsenault, 2011
