Abstract
At the turn of the century, between 1999 and 2000, Dana Kolpin and a small group of his fellow United States Geological Survey scientists were busy. Over the course of two years they conducted a nationwide reconnaissance to measure organic wastewater contaminants in 139 streams in thirty different states. The water they collected was analyzed for a variety of pharmaceuticals, including veterinary and human antibiotics, prescription and nonprescription drugs, as well as steroids and hormones. They also tested for a few personal care products, including DEET (N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide), the primary chemical used in many common insect repellants, and triclosan, an antibacterial compound found in soaps and detergents. While the sampling sites were biased toward streams adjacent to potential sources of contamination, and most chemicals were found in only very low concentration (less than one part per billion), the results were still striking. Fully 80 percent of the 139 sampled streams contained detectable levels of a number of compounds found, on average, in a mixture of seven different chemical compounds per site.
We have found the enemy and he is us.
— Pogo, from the comic strip Pogo by Walt Kelly
Notes
- 1.
* In India, vultures consume other sources of meat beyond cattle. A religious group that had traditionally exposed their dead to the elements rather than burying them had to stop the practice, as the birds that once quickly consumed the flesh were vanishing.
Reference
Boxall, A. B., M. A. Rudd, B. W. Brooks, D. J. Caldwell, K. Choi, S. Hickmann, E. Innes, et al. “Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products in the Environment: What Are the Big Questions?” Environmental Health Perspectives 120 (2012): 1221–29. doi:10.1289/ehp.1104477. Epub 2012 May 30.
Brausch, J. M., and G. M. Rand. “A Review of Personal Care Products in the Aquatic Environment: Environmental Concentrations and Toxicity.” Chemosphere 82 (2011): 1518–32.
Brooks, B. W. “Fish on Prozac (and Zoloft): Ten Years Later.” Aquatic Toxicology 151 (2014): 61–67.
Brooks, B. W., C. K. Chambliss, J. K. Stanley, A. Ramirez, K. E. Banks, R. D. Johnson, and R. J. Lewis. “Determination of Select Antidepressants in Fish from an Effluent-Dominated Stream.” Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 24 (2005): 464–69.
Brooks, B. W., C. M. Foran, S. M. Richards, J. Weston, P. K. Turner, J. K. Stanley, K. R. Solomon, M. Slattery, and T. W. La Point. “Aquatic Ecotoxicology of Fluoxetine.” Toxicology Letters 142 (2003): 169–83.
Brooks, B. W., P. K. Turner, J. K. Stanley, J. J. Weston, E. A. Glidewell, C. M. Foran, M. Slattery, T. W. La Point, and D. B. Huggett. “Water-borne and Sediment Toxicity of Fluoxetine to Select Organisms.” Chemosphere 52 (2003): 135–42.
Fabbri, E. “Pharmaceuticals in the Environment: Expected and Unexpected Effects on Aquatic Fauna.” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1340 (2015): 20–28.
Gonzalez-Rey, M., N. Tapie, K. Le Menach, M.-H. Devier, H. Budzinski, and M. J. Bebianno. “Occurrence of Pharmaceutical Compounds and Pesticides in Aquatic Systems.” Marine Pollution Bulletin 96 (2015): 384–400.
James-Todd, T., M. B. Terry, J. Rich-Edwards, A. Deierlein, and R. Senie. “Childhood Hair Product Use and Earlier Age at Menarche in a Racially Diverse Study Population: A Pilot Study.” Annals of Epidemiology 21 (2011): 461–65. doi:10.1016/j.annepidem.2011.01.009. Epub 2011 Mar 21.
Kessler, R. “More than Cosmetic Changes: Taking Stock of Personal Care Product Safety.” Environmental Health Perspectives 123 (2015): A120–27. doi:10.1289/ehp.123-A120.
Larsson, J. D. G., C. de Pedro, and N. Paxeus. “Effluent from Drug Manufactures Contain Extremely High Levels of Pharmaceuticals.” Journal of Hazardous Materials 148 (2007): 751–55. Epub 2007 Jul 6.
Larsson, J. D. G. “Pollution from Drug Manufacturing: Review and Perspectives.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 369 (2014). doi:10.1098/rstb.2013.0571.
Lubick, N. “India’s Drug Problem.” Nature 457 (2009): 640–41. doi:10.1038/457640a.
Matthiessen, P., and L. Weltje. “A Review of the Effects of Azole Compounds in Fish and Their Possible Involvement in Masculinization of Wild Fish Populations.” Critical Reviews in Toxicology 45 (2015): 453–67. doi:10.3109/10408444.2015.1018409. Epub 2015 Apr 21.
Myers, S. L., C. Z. Yang, G. D. Bittner, K. L. Witt, R. R. Tice, and D. D. Baird. “Estrogenic and Anti-Estrogenic Activity of Off-the-Shelf Hair and Skin Care Products.” Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology 25 (2015): 271–77. doi:10.1038/jes.2014.32. Epub 2014 May 21.
Oaks, J. L., M. Gilbert, M. Z. Virani, R. T. Watson, C. U. Meteyer, B. A. Rideout, H. L. Shivaprasad, et al. “Diclofenac Residues as the Cause of Vulture Population Decline in Pakistan.” Nature 427 (12 February 2004): 630–33.
Overturf, M. D., J. C. Anderson, Z. Pandelides, L. Beyger, and D. A. Holdway. “Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products: A Critical Review of the Impacts on Fish Reproduction.” Critical Reviews in Toxicology 45 (2015): 469–91. doi:10.3109/10408444.2015.1038499. Epub 2015 May 6.
Sumpter, J. P., R. L. Donnachie, and A. C. Johnson. “The Apparently Very Variable Potency of the Anti-Depressant Fluoxetine.” Aquatic Toxicology 151 (2014): 57–60.
Ternes, T. A., A. Joss, and H. Siegrist. “Scrutinizing Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products in Wastewater Treatment.” Environmental Science & Technology 38 (2004): 392A–399A.
Tiwary, C. M. “Premature Sexual Development in Children Following the Use of Estrogen- or Placenta-Containing Hair Products.” Clinical Pediatrics 37 (1998): 733–39.
Wise, L. A., J. R. Palmer, D. Reich, Y. C. Cozier, and L. Rosenberg. “Hair Relaxer Use and Risk of Uterine Leiomyomata in African-American Women.” American Journal of Epidemiology 175 (2012): 432–40. doi:10.1093/aje/kwr351.
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Alan Kolok
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Kolok, A.S. (2016). Toxic Toiletries. In: Modern Poisons. Island Press, Washington, DC. https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-609-7_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-609-7_16
Publisher Name: Island Press, Washington, DC
Print ISBN: 978-1-61091-666-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-61091-609-7
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)