Impact/Purpose:

The overall objective of this task is to provide the Agency with background information on the fate of pharmaceuticals in drinking water systems which can be used to determine if pharmaceuticals should be entered on the 2003 or future CCLs.

Description:

Pharmaceuticals are intended to be applied to or ingested by humans and animals, metabolized by their bodies, and excreted through urine or feces. However, it has been estimated that somewhere between 30 and 90% of administered active ingredients pass through the human and animals unchanged. Sewage treatment plants have been found to remove between 7 and 96% of fourteen pharmaceuticals (mean 65 1 25), but not all pharmaceutical containing waters pass through sewage treatment plants before drinking water treatment (e.g., terrestrial and aquatic applications of veterinary pharmaceuticals), so the potential exists for pharmaceuticals to be in the source water of drinking water treatment plants. Occurrence studies have been performed on surface and ground water samples from urban areas in Germany and Brazil; the concentrations of certain drugs were found to be in excess of 1 5g/L. There are very few studies in the literature concerning the effect of drinking water treatment on the fate of pharmaceutical compounds, and those that are present were conducted in urban areas where sewage and drinking water treatment are presumably state-of-the-art (or very close to it). Since the sewage and water treatment in most areas studied in the literature are generally more thorough than many areas of the United States, and since different pharmaceuticals, in different doses, are prescribed, it is not sound science to simply assume that the literature concentrations are what we will encounter in the waters of the US.

While the literature reports that pharmaceuticals have not been found in natural or drinking waters at high enough concentrations to cause acute human health effects, the potential for subtle effects from continual exposures to these low doses (such as endocrine disruption) is still a hotly debated topic, which demands further research. In addition, certain pharmaceuticals are only used by humans, therefore their presence in the environment can only be attributed to anthropogenic waste streams, so they may be useful as indicators of human fecal contamination.

The purpose of this task is to determine what happens to pharmaceuticals when they are chlorinated, and to determine, as best as possible, what disinfection/ deterioration by-products are formed. The simple experimental approach of this task could then be used as a screening test to determine which of the thousands of pharmaceuticals that are used in this country would have the greatest probability of passing through waste and drinking water treatment and into the public's tap water, and that therefore should be listed on future Drinking Water Contaminant Candidate Lists. It can also help other agencies and institutions choose which compounds should be included on occurrence studies, thus reducing the number of compounds that always turn up as "non-detects", resulting in more cost-effective research.

Record Details:

Record Type:PROJECT

Start Date:10/01/2000

Completion Date:02/01/2003

Record ID: 18335

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Project Information:

Progress :Of the forty-one compounds that were initially deemed to be of potential interest due to their amounts sold/ prescribed, amount excreted unmetabolized by humans, and inclusion in ongoing occurrence studies, sixteen were readily amenable to analysis by liquid chromatography/ particle beam/ mass spectrometry, so they became the focus of this project. Paired model solutions were prepared by dissolving the active ingredients in water; sodium hypochlorite was added to one sample of the pair as the chlorination agent. The unchlorinated samples were analyzed immediately, and again after 48 hours, with its chlorinated companion. After the effects of the holding time were determined (which, in most cases, was negligible), the unchlorinated and chlorinated spectra were compared to determine the effects of chlorination. The particle beam experiments proved inconclusive, so additional sets of the model solutions were prepared and analyzed using liquid chromatography/ electrospray/ mass spectrometry. The chlorination experiments were concluded in early 2001. The preliminary particle beam data was presented and well received at the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry annual meeting in November 2000.

Presentation:

Glassmeyer, S.T. and Shoemaker, J.A. The Effects of Disinfection on Pharmaceuticals in Drinking Water Supplies. Presented at the 21st Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry Annual Meeting, Nashville, TN, 11/12-16/00.

Relevance :The purpose of this task is to determine the fate of pharmaceuticals when they are chlorinated. Compounds that are susceptible to a reduction-oxidation type reaction would not make it through water treatment, and should pose no health risk. However, the research presented here indicates that the pharmaceuticals that are not affected by chlorination, as well as those compounds that bind chlorine, can make it through a water treatment regime intact, and thus could subsequently potentially cause health effects (both due to their inherent nature and the fact that rudimentary toxicology suggests that the addition of chlorine would increase the potential for mutagenicity). This task also meets one the Office of Wastewater Management's research needs: Characterizing the Presence of Pharmaceuticals in Water and Wastewater. Additionally, pharmaceuticals have been listed in the Office of Research and Development's draft research plan as candidates for future Contaminant Candidate Lists (CCL). The simple methodology of this task can be used as a screening test to determine which of the thousands of pharmaceuticals that are used in this country would have the greatest probability of passing through waste and drinking water treatment and into the public's tap water, and that therefore should be listed on the CCL. It can also help other agencies and institutions choose which compounds should be included on occurrence studies, thus reducing the number of compounds that always turn up as "non-detects". Attempts have been made to reach the target audience by presenting the data at national conferences, as well as participating in intra-agency conference calls. All data will be written up for publication in a national journal.

Clients :Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water (Karen Wirth, Dave Munch), Office of Wastewater Management

Research Component :CCL (CHEMICAL)

Risk Paradigm :EXPOSURE

Project IDs:

ID Code :none

Project type :ORD-DW Plan

ID Code :7004

Project type :OMIS