Pharmaceuticals and Person Care Products in Water - Toxicological Issues

Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products (PPCPs) have been detected in the nation's surface water, wastewater, and drinking water. PPCPs include prescription and nonprescription drugs, antibiotics, steroids, hormones, and fragrances. This issue achieved media attention in early 2008 when the Associated Press released a report stating that PPCPs were found in the drinking water of 24 large U.S. cities, serving approximately 41 million people. A number of occurrence studies have detected PPCPs in surface water, including a 1999-2000 study by the U.S. Geological Survey that found 80% of streams testing positive for one or more PPCP. These chemicals pose a potential risk to both aquatic organisms and human health. This paper discusses some of the toxicological issues involved in evaluating the harmful effects of PPCPs on aquatic organisms and on human health. For aquatic organisms, there is concern that traditional toxicity testing may not be adequate to address the subtle effects found from exposure to PPCPs. For human health, various risk assessment methods have been used to evaluate possible effects. Although most of the PPCPs have been detected at very low levels, there may be unintended health effects due to exposure to chemical mixtures. In addition, issues concerning length of exposure are of importance when evaluating the human health effects of the PPCPs. These and other toxicological issues will be discussed and evaluated in this paper.