What's In Iowa's Water?

What's in Iowa's water?  Would you believe antibiotics, steroids,  personal care products, pharmaceuticals, acetaminophen (Tylenol), ibuprofen, caffeine, cotinine (a metabolite
of nicotine), deet (an insect repellent)
and carbamazepine, an anti-seizure medication used to treat people with
epilepsy and bi-polar disorder?



An Exclusive Report from WHO's 13 News



Des Moines, May 5th, 2005
– Do you know what's in your water? The Environmental Protection Agency
sets standards for and monitors pollutants in the water. Things like
chemicals from manufacturing and pesticides from farm run-off. But
other contaminants are now showing up in the water and many of them
come from you and me.



They're
called “emerging pollutants”. Things like hormones and antibiotics.
They aren't necessarily new to the water but scientists are just
starting to test for them. In this Channel 13 Investigation, Sonya
Heitshusen takes a look at what's in your water and how it might impact
your health.



More
than 70-thousand miles of rivers and streams in Iowa provide the state
with the majority of its drinking water. In central Iowa, your water
primarily comes from two rivers, the Des Moines and the Raccoon.



Rain,
run off and treated waste water fill the rivers. This is the same water
that, after purification, flows through your pipes. The quality of that
water directly effects your health. That's why the government
implemented the safe drinking water act more than 30 years ago.



The
Environmental Protection Agency (E.P.A.) is in charge of setting and
enforcing standards for known toxins like arsenic and lead. But the
E.P.A. does not have standards for other pollutants like antibiotics
and hormones used in people and animals. We have not been monitoring
for these chemicals in the past and now that we're developing sensitive
techniques, we're finding them. And now that they're finding them,
scientists also want to know how they might impact our health.



Dr. John
Vargo, Phd. says, “One of the biggest concerns is the effect of
antibiotics in the environment. Some studies have shown there is a
correlation between bacteria resistant to antibiotics and presence of
these drugs in the environment but testing is still limited.”



So with
the help of the state's hygienic lab we conducted our own tests. We
collected samples from the Des Moines river at Johnston, the Des Moines
river at Runnells, the Raccoon river at Water Works Park and tap water
from the Wallace building in Des Moines. Then we shipped the samples to
the state hygienic lab in Iowa city for testing.

We looked for antibiotics, steroids, hormones and personal care
products. This is what we found… The hormones we tested for did not
show up in the river water. That's good news because some scientists
believe hormones in the water supply are contributing to an increase in
some cancers like breast and prostate cancer.



But some
personal care products and pharmaceuticals did turn up. Acetaminophen
was detected in the Des Moines river. Ibuprofen turned up in the
Raccoon. Caffeine and cotinine, a metabolite of nicotine, turned up in
both rivers. As did deet, an insect repellent and carbamazepine, an
anti-seizure medication used to treat people with epilepsy and bi-polar
disorder. Several antibiotics used in humans and livestock were also
detected in both rivers.



Unlike
bacteria and pesticides, Des Moines' Waste Water Treatment plant can't
filter out those pharmaceuticals. Dr. Vargo says that waste water
treatment plants have limited ability to remove these chemicals. That's
significant because what comes out of the waste water treatment plant
goes into the river and what goes into the river eventually goes into
your tap water. And according to Dr. Vargo, “Drinking water
facilities are not 100-percent at removing every type of chemical.”



In fact,
according to our tests, Des Moines' water works facility failed to
remove three emerging pollutants from the drinking water. Caffiene
showed up in the tap water, so did cotinine, the nicotine metabolite,
as did carbamazepine – the anti-seizure medication.



L.D.
McMullen, Director of the Des Moines Water Works says, “The caffiene is
not a surprise… The seizure medication is a surprise.” McMullen says
the plant can treat for most things but it can't get rid of everything.
He says, “I don't know of any plants that have the capability to remove
everything.”



All of
the emerging pollutants that showed up in our testing were detected in
extremely small amounts. The carbamazepine was detected at 1.7-parts
per trillion. To put that into perspective, the equivalent in time
would be one second over the course of 31-years. But scientists are
still concerned about consistent exposure to even small doses of
various pharmaceuticals and hormones.



Dr.
Vargo says, “The E.P.A. is looking at long term exposure that might be
realistic in the environment. In the real world we're not just dealing
with exposure to one chemical. You're dealing with multiple chemicals.”



McMullen
adds, “What the long term implication is, I don't know, but it's still
not right.” He says antibiotics routinely turn up in testing. He hopes
to have a system in place by the end of the year that will detect even
more emerging pollutants.



(Source)