There is practically no data for gauging the potential toxicity of these pharmaceuticals to humans, wildlife or aquatic ecosystems, scientists say.
New studies show the drugs are coming from human wastes.
Half of an prescribed pharmaceutical may be excreted from the patient's body in its original form, on in another biologically active form. In some cases up to 90 percent of the drugs originally ingested find their way into water supplies. Scientists say that partially degraded drugs may be converted back into their active form through chemical reactions that occur in the environment. In other research in Germany, chemist Thomas Ternes, with the municipal water research laboratory in Wiesbaden, Germany, launched a water monitoring project and detected 30 of 60 common pharmaceuticals in sewage, treated water, and in nearly all streams and rivers in Germany. The same drugs could be found in U.S. waters if they were monitored for pharmaceuticals, the article suggests.