GLWI hosts Wisconsin Senate hearing
on safe medicine disposal

Posted: April 23, 2009

Shaw Assistant Scientist Rebecca Klaper testifies at a state Senate informational hearing on safe medicine disposal.

The Great Lakes WATER Institute (GLWI) hosted a Wisconsin Senate informational hearing Apr. 15 on the environmental impacts of pharmaceuticals and the safe disposal of unused medicine.

GLWI scientist Rebecca Klaper was one of several invited speakers who testified before the Senate's Committee on Public Health, Senior Issues, Long-Term Care, and Job Creation.

Klaper, an aquatic ecologist, told the committee that even low levels of prescription or non-prescription drugs in aquatic environments can negatively impact wildlife.

In one of her laboratory studies, Klaper said, she found that low levels of an antidepressant—similar to levels found in the environment—altered fish behavior and reproduction.

Trace amounts of a variety of drugs—from antibiotics and birth control pills to lipid regulators and pain relievers—have been detected in many waters across the country, raising concerns about their potential impacts on environmental and human health.

Such pharmaceuticals enter sewage systems when they are flushed down toilets, either directly or after passing through the body. Because many wastewater treatment facilities are not technologically advanced enough to remove pharmaceuticals, some drugs then pass through the facilities and into lakes and rivers.

Klaper told the committee that community-wide collections of unused medications can help reduce the amount of pharmaceuticals entering our waters. A four-hour collection event organized by the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District Apr. 18 netted more than four and a half tons of unused medication from a four-county area.

But, said Klaper, collection events are only part of the solution, and efforts also need to be made to improve wastewater treatment technologies.

Other invited speakers at the hearing included medical and wastewater treatment professionals. Members of the Senate Committee on Public Health, Senior Issues, Long-Term Care, and Job Creation are Senators Tim Carpenter, Spencer Coggs, Dan Kapanke, Dale Schultz, and Kathleen Vinehout.

–Jennifer Yauck