Pharmaceuticals in Wastewater:
Implications for the Portable
Sanitation Industry
By Karleen Kos, PSAI Executive Director
For the past several years, portable sanitation operators have
identified the accessibility and cost of waste disposal as one of
their biggest business challenges. Lack of infrastructure capacity is certainly a root cause for our disposal woes. There is another
issue lurking, though, that is likely
to impact disposal access and fees in the future: the concentration of pharmaceuticals in
wastewater. This is not a problem that is specific to portable sanitation, but it is likely to affect us as information becomes more
available and governmental bodies, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and publicly owned treatment works (POTWs)
grapple with what to do.
Background
Scientists and wastewater professionals have known for years that trace pharmaceuticals and personal care products are present
in wastewater. In its January 1998 issue the scholarly journal Chemosphere published a review of information known at that time,
summarizing it in the following abstract:
[Pharmaceuticals] are a group of substances that until recently have been exposed to the environment with very little
attention. The reason why they may be interesting as environmental micropollutants, is that medical substances are
developed with the intention of performing a biological effect. Especially antibiotics used as growth promoters,
[such]
as feed additives in fish farms are anticipated to end up in the environment. Very little is known about the
exposure routes of the medical substances to the environment. […] Further research would be necessary to
assess the environmental risk involved in exposing medical substances and metabolites to the environment.
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WEEKLY EDITION April 18, 2018
CONTINUED ON PAGE 2