Transcript Enviromental_Isssue_Group_9 - Environmental

Pharmaceutical Dumping
The act of illegally dumping expired drugs in
waterways.
By: Thomnas Ritchie
Marjorie Weigel
Jessalyn Gallman
Dylan Rentfro
Class: WD2
March 2, 2011
What is Pharmaceutical Dumping?
Pharmaceutics - Pharmacy: The art and
science of preparing and dispensing
drugs and medicines.
Dumping- Throw away, dispose of.
Pharmaceutical Dumping is the illegal
disposal of medicinal materials primarily
in the water supply. (Russel)
What's The Issue?
According to researchers, a large enough amount
of powerful antibiotics to treat approximately
90,000 people were being dumped into one of
India's waterways daily. Not only that, the
Associated Press reported that the same stream
also contained over twenty other chemicals that
were dumped by pharmacies.
The amount of chemicals found in this waterway
were over 100 times the amount found in U.S.
waterways with high levels of chemicals.(Adams)
Causes of Pharmaceutical
Dumping
• The main causes of Pharmaceutical Dumping are financial
concerns- pharmacist that illegally dump usually aim to save
money that would otherwise be used to dispose of the
medicine properly.
• Studies have found that 100 pounds of the antibiotic
Ciprolaxin were entering the water every day from a drug
factory in India.(U.S. Pharmaceutical Factories.)
• Also, it can cause disease causing bacteria,parasitic worms,
and viruses enter the sewage systems and untreated
wastes.(Causes of Water Pollutions).
Impacts of Pharmaceutical Dumping
• Companies have released at least 271 million ponds of
Pharmaceutics into the waterways.
• "Two common industrial chemicals that are also
pharmaceuticals the antiseptics phenol and hydrogen
peroxide account for 92 percent of the 271 million pounds
identified as coming from drug-makers and other
manufacturers. Both can be toxic and both are considered
to be ubiquitous in the environment."(Donn)
• This can be very dangerous in some cases, as people can
be allergic to these substances.
• Another impact of the dumping is breast cancer in women,
and birth defects.
History of Pharmaceutical Dumping
Dumping goes back as far as the invention of
medicine. In hospitals it was common for the poor to
be tasked with bringing the bio hazardous wastes to
dumps in populated areas for disposal, this was often
hazardous for those who came in contact with the
materials and those who lived in the vicinity. The
dumping of defective or expired medicinal goods has
been proven to be in occurrence since the 1800's as
archaeologists have found evidence of this in
buildings that once housed pharmacies. (Russian
Info-Center)
Statistics
Short Term Effects
• Toxic chemicals will harm inhabitants of the water they
are being directly dumped into such as fish and other
plants and animals.
• Direct contact with contaminated water can cause
illness.
• Water becomes murky and unsanitary, becoming a risk
toward the health of people and animals.
Long Term Effects
• Excessive dumping of chemicals into waterways may
cause contamination of connected waterways, causing a
much larger number of plants and animals that inhabit
the water to die out.
• The dumping of Antibiotics into waterways may possibly
cause the Antibiotics to be less effective in curing
infections.
This is a picture of an Indian waterway that has been
contaminated by chemicals due to Pharmaceutical
Dumping.
What can we do in our communities to
Prevent Pharmaceutical Dumping
This this cycle you are looking
at the Holistic Watershed
Approach. This Cycle does not
yield Positive Results from
water By itself. But it does
provide a good statue and
calaboration, to help Programs
help a lot more causes
In this photo you are looking at there is a large amount
of Pharmaceutical Dumping going on in this surburban
area.
Recipe for a Revolution
Ingredients:
1. People
2. Strong belief
3. Large Group of People that belief what you do
4. Place to meet to talk about the topic
Directions
1. You take the large group of people that belief what you do.
Cordanize a time to meet at the Place to
Possible Sources
• An obvious source of this "dumping" is major drug
companies that manufacture and chemically create the
compounds they later dump.
• Also, manufacturers whom use certain types of paint such
as lead based paint, then dump the leftovers they have no
use for.
• other sources though they mean no harm are the water
treatment plants that may, on occasion put excess amounts
of certain chemicals such as chlorine.
Song
I
Once a long time ago me and my brother dylan were hitch
hiking down a long and lonesome road
Citations
Watson, Debra . "Pharmaceutical companies dump useless drugs in Albania." wsws. N.p.,
1998-2011 . Web. 23 Feb. 2011. <http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/jul1999/drug-j03.shtml>
"U.S. Pharmaceutical Factories Dumping Huge Quantities of Drugs Into Public Sewers, Rivers
and Waterways." Dprogram.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2011.
<http://dprogram.net/2009/09/24/u-s-pharmaceutical-factories-dumping-huge-quantities-ofdrugs-into-public-sewers-rivers-and-waterways/>
Gutierrez, David. "U.S. Pharmaceutical Factories Dumping Huge Quantities of Drugs Into
Public Sewers, Rivers and Waterways Learn more." Natural News. 24 Sept. 2009. Web.
23
Feb. 22, 2011
http://www.naturalnews.com/027092_water_drugs_rivers.html#ixzz1EnfkqZDm>
Donn, Mendoza, Pritchard, Jeff, Martha, Justin. "US Water Contaminated By
Pharmaceutical Companies, Hospitals, Consumers." The Huffington Post. 20 Apr. 2009.
Web. 23 Feb.
2011. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/20/us-water-contaminatedby-_n_188852.html>
Adams, Mike. "India's Waterways A Toxic Skew Of Pharmaceutical Chemicals Dumped From
Big Pharma Factories." Natural News. Truth Publishing International, 2003-2011. Web. 23
Feb. 2011. <http://www.naturalnews.com/025415_water_Big_Pharma_drug.html>
"Safety and Health Topics: Hazardous Drugs." Occupational Safety and Health Administration
- Home. Web. 23 Feb. 2011. <http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/hazardousdrugs/index.html>
Citations
Persyn, Russell . "Collaboration, Innovation, Our Future Watershed Integrity Team Seeks to
Develop Results through Cooperation and Collaboration ." River Reach. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Mar.
2011. <http://www.sara-tx.org/newsletters/winter-10.html>
"Russia-InfoCentre :: 19th Century Pharmaceutical Dump Discovered by Archeologists in
Lipetsk." Russia-InfoCentre ::. Web. 23 Feb. 2011. <http://russiaic.com/news/show/10753>
"11 Green Companies - News Markets - Portfolio.com." Portfolio.Com: News & Views On
Business And Entrepreneurship - Portfolio.com. Web. 23 Feb.
2011. http://www.portfolio.com/news-markets/national-news/portfolio/2008/02/19/11Green-Companies
"Causes Of Water Pollution: What Is To Blame." Controlloing Pollution. N.p., 2011. Web.
28 Feb. 2011. http://www.controllingpollution.com/causes-of-water-pollution/
Peterka, Amanda . "Record Levels of Pharmaceuticals Found in India's Water."
redgreenandblue.com. N.p., 25 Jan. 2009. Web. 1 Mar. 2011.
<http://redgreenandblue.org/2009/01/25/record-levels-of-pharmaceuticals-found-in-indiaswater/>.
Peterka, Amanda . "Record Levels of Pharmaceuticals Found in India's Water."
redgreenandblue.com. N.p., 25 Jan. 2009. Web. 1 Mar. 2011.