Many times things get put down our drains or flushed down our toilets that shouldn’t be because they can harm our septic systems or sewage treatment plants and ultimately our water quality and health. But what do you do with something like unused medication?

For purposes of water quality discussions, pharmaceuticals are usually grouped with other chemicals found in water supplies and called pharmaceuticals and personal care products or PPCPs.

These are a diverse group of chemicals that include products like over-the-counter drugs, prescription medicines, nutritional supplements, and veterinary drugs; products we use to adorn and clean ourselves, such as fragrances, lotions, antibacterial soaps, detergents, sunscreens, and cosmetics, and other chemicals used in various important applications, including pesticides, plasticizers, and certain types of flame retardants.

All of these chemicals are finding their way into our water supplies one way or another.

Medicines are produced and used in very large volumes. Fifty percent of the population uses at least one prescription drug daily and four out of five patients leave the doctor’s office with a prescription. These enter the environment by excretion by humans and domestic animals and by flushing unneeded or expired medications down a toilet or drain.

It is estimated that hospitals and long-term care facilities intentionally discard 250 million pounds of unused or unwanted medicines each year.

Until very recently technology was not able to detect these chemicals in water because the concentrations were below detectable limits. Now that it is possible to detect them we are frequently finding one or more of these chemicals in our water. Even though the concentrations seem very small and insignificant there are an extremely large number of molecules of these products in the water we drink.

There is no doubt these chemicals are beginning to show up in our drinking water supplies. Well, so what? Are they really harmful to us? There is not a great deal of credible information to show that we humans are being affected, healthwise, by these very low concentrations of chemicals in our drinking water.

There is, however, growing evidence that some of these chemicals disrupt the endocrine balance in various species in nature and can adversely affect fish and other aquatic species living in the contaminated waters. Some of these chemicals interfere with or mimic natural hormones and disrupt reproduction, development, and behavior of fish and other organisms. No one currently knows at what concentrations similar impacts will be detected in human.

Keeping these chemicals from our water supplies is almost impossible because the technology does not exist that will completely remove them from water. Reducing the use of these products is the only way to reduce the volume of these products that reach our water supply.

While it is tougher to reduce the amount of drugs being excreted by humans, the only truly safe way to dispose of unused medications is by high-temperature incineration.

These incineration sites are usually under the control of law enforcement. Instead of flushing those unwanted medications, dispose of unused prescription drugs through pharmaceutical take-back programs happening in our area more and more frequently.

If you have a large supply of medications and there are no take backs scheduled, take unused, unneeded, or expired prescription drugs out of their original containers. Mix the drugs with an undesirable substance, such as kitty litter. Put the drugs in sturdy, opaque, non-nondescript containers then throw these containers in the trash.

For more information, check out the Penn State Water Resources website or the Environmental Protection Agency Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products website.

(Written By: Dana Rizzo, Extension Educator, Water Resources,Renewable Natural Resource, Penn State Extension, Westmoreland County, and reprinted from the Penn State Extension's Watershed Winds newsletter.)

10/14/2013