In this posting we review recent news about pharmaceuticals found in drinking water. Drinking water serving greater than 41 million Americans have been found to contain pharmaceutical compounds according to an Associated Press investigation. The Associated Press’ investigation also indicates that watersheds and other surface water sources also are contaminated.
The concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are extremely low, measured in quantities of parts per billion or trillion. Researchers do not yet understand the exact risks from decades of persistent exposure to random combinations of low levels of pharmaceuticals. Pharmaceuticals in waterways have been found to damage wildlife across the US. Notably, male fish are being feminized, creating egg yolk proteins, a process usually restricted to females. Benjamin H. Grumbles, assistant administrator for water at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency states, “We recognize it is a growing concern, and we’re taking it very seriously.”
These compounds enter the water through the sewage system. People take medication and their bodies absorb some of the medication, but the rest of it passes through and is flushed down the toilet. Despite treatment at both wastewater and rinking water plants, treatment processes do not remove all drug residue.
Even users of bottled water and home filtration systems don’t necessarily avoid exposure. Bottlers, some of which simply repackage tap water, do not typically treat or test for pharmaceuticals, according to the industry’s main trade group. The same goes for the makers of home filtration systems.
Research is being done to determine how to treat water to remove these compounds. Oxidation by means of ozone is proven to be a very promising treatment solution for the removal of pharmaceuticals, EDCs and pathogens in effluents of municipal waste water treatment plants.
Even in waste water matrices ozone reacts fast and specifically with many of the investigated compounds. Therefore it is possible to achieve reduction rates > 90% even with relatively low ozone dosage of 5 to 10 mg/L. It is possible to reduce the concentrations of specific contaminants, the pathogens and to eliminate estrogenicity. The operational cost of ozone treatment is in the range of 0.06 to 0.12 $ per 1000 gallons of treated water.
Ozone does not completely destroy pharmaceutical compounds, but instead breaks them down into smaller biodegradable compounds that can be further degraded by natural biological organisms in the environment safely.
Spartan Environmental Technologies provides ozone generators and other advanced oxidation processes for water treatment such as the treatment of drinking water and wastewater.