Pharmaceuticals and Endocrine Disruptors in Rivers and On Tap

Pharmaceuticals showing up in rivers downstream from sewage plants have raised concerns now that several public water systems have tested positive for drugs. Tap water in Wheeling, West Virginia, and the Ohio River tested positive for antibiotics according to USA Today November 7, 2000. A 17-year old high school student named Ashley Mulroy won the Stockholm Junior Water Prize for her project which found three common antibiotics (penicillin, tetracycline, and vancomycin) in the river and more alarming, on tap. She is not the first researcher to find drugs on tap. Thomas Heberer of the University of Berlin, Germany, presented his findings of various drugs in tap water in last year's National Ground Water Association (NGWA) international conference on emerging issues. The NGWA conference held in Minneapolis, June 7-8, 2000, was covered on Minnesota Public Radio on “Morning Edition” June 8. Keynote Speaker Janet Raloff, author of “Drugged Waters,” and Dana Kolpin of the U.S. Geological Survey were interviewed. Pharmaceuticals and endocrine disrupting chemicals in water sparked international interest as scientists from the United States (U.S.), Canada, England, and Germany attended the ground-breaking conference at the Hyatt Regency, Minneapolis. Largescale investigations are underway in over 100 of America's rivers and streams. Current drinking water standards do not require testing for any of the over 7,000 pharmaceutical compounds being prescribed, so why bother?