Improper Drug Disposal May Harm Fish
September 19, 2005
Release from: Juliet Eilperin
The Washington Post
WASHINGTON – Scientists are calling it a prescription drug dilemma with potentially damaging side effects.
Academics, state officials and environmental advocates are starting to question whether massive amounts of discarded pharmaceuticals flushed down the drain pose a threat to the nation’s aquatic life and possibly to people.
In waterways from the Potomac River to the Brazos River in Texas, researchers have found fish laden with estrogen and antidepressants. Many of those show evidence of major neurological or physiological changes.
No one has seen evidence of effects on human health, but a number are asking publicly why the federal government is not taking a more aggressive approach to what they see as a looming problem.
In October 2002, Maine’s Department of Environmental Protection asked federal scientists to analyze water samples to determine to what extent prescription drugs had seeped into the state’s waterways.
Worried that discarded birth-control pills, antidepressants and other drugs could affect the state’s fishing industry and public health, the department’s Ann Pistell hoped the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s Northeast regional office could give her a speedy answer.
It was 2 1/2 years before she received a partial report identifying drugs in the water without a detailed explanation, and she said she’s still waiting for a full breakdown.
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“We’re sort of baffled and frustrated by the lack of a sample analysis,” said Pistell, an environmental specialist. “We see this as an emerging issue. The more we find out, the more concerned we are.”
Some state officials have started organizing. Raoul Clarke of Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection has worked with colleagues to establish a online contacts list on which state and local officials can exchange information with concerned activists.
EPA officials say they still are gauging the seriousness of the threat. Technological advances in testing make it possible to detect very low levels of hormones and chemical compounds in waterways, they say, and it is unclear whether such levels harm animals or people.
Hal Zenick, who monitors health issues in the EPA’s Office of Research and Development, said several agencies are working to determine whether such contaminants “lead to exposures, and do these exposures have implications for health effects.”
Others, including drug manufacturers and sewage treatment operators, say that while they are monitoring the contaminants, their threat has been overstated.
Thomas White, an environmental consultant for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), said industry studies indicate there are “no appreciable human health risks” and no “appreciable impacts on the aquatic environment” linked to drugs in the water.
In recent months, however, scientists have issued a series of findings suggesting that discarded drugs, which pass through municipal wastewater systems and into rivers, lakes and streams, could affect the environment. In 2002, a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) study found these kinds of contaminants in 80 percent of the 139 streams it sampled in 30 states.
Other researchers suspect that hormones and medicines in the water may be responsible for effects on wildlife that include feminizing male fish and making others sluggish or uninterested in eating.
Timothy Gross, a USGS toxicologist, has spent several years studying how fish are faring downstream from Las Vegas.
He examined three species — carp, largemouth bass and the endangered razorback sucker — and detected “a very large and marked decrease in sperm quality and quantity” in all three populations.
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There are enough carp and bass to withstand such effects, Gross said, but the razorback sucker may not recover. “When you have a species already on the brink, this may push them over the brink,” he said.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who has secured $2.5 million in the past decade to fund the Geological Survey’s water quality studies in the Las Vegas Valley, said the government needs “to do a comprehensive national study to determine how these contaminants might affect our health, our water supplies and our environment.”
State and local officials are growing increasingly impatient. David Galvin, who manages the hazardous waste program in King County, Wash., is coming under pressure from county residents to collect unused pharmaceuticals from hospitals as well as from elderly residents’ homes.
He is working with the nonprofit Product Stewardship Institute in Boston to start a national dialogue between drug manufacturers and government agencies on how to minimize the environmental impact of discarded medicines.
“Otherwise, we at the local level are going to be stuck with figuring out how to deal with it and having to pay for it,” Galvin said. “I’d rather that not happen.”
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Glowing glucose tracker goes skin deep
04 October 2010
Japanese researchers have developed microscale beads that visibly glow under the skin in response to blood glucose levels, signaling a potential end to repeated fingertip prick blood tests for diabetics needing to monitor their glucose levels.
To date, sensors embedded in the body to continuously track glucose levels have been of limited use because they need to be hooked up to external power sources and monitors, making them uncomfortable for patients. Fluorescent sensors have been suggested as a way to avoid the need for external connections, but they haven’t been successful as the signal hasn’t been strong enough to show through the skin and the materials used could be toxic.
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To overcome these challenges, Shoji Takeuchi at the University of Tokyo and colleagues developed long-lasting, fluorescent, biocompatible beads that continuously monitor glucose without external power sources. The fluorescent glow was strong enough to be visible through the pale pink skin of a mouse’s ear.
The researchers synthesized a fluorescent monomer made of glucose-recognition sites, a fluorogenic site, spacers, and polymerisation sites. The fluorescence increases as glucose concentration increases |
The researchers created a novel molecule from diboronic acid and anthracene. The molecule selectively and reversibly bound to glucose and fluoresced without the assistance of any reagents and enzymes. The investigators added long, hydrophilic spacers and polymerisation sites to bind the molecule to flexible supports and increase the chances of binding to glucose molecules. The team then fabricated injectable fluorescent polyacrylamide hydrogel beads to pack the monomers into.
When the 130um diameter beads were injected into the ears of mice, the researchers tracked how the intensity of the fluorescence seen through the skin changed as they artificially changed the animals’ blood sugar levels. The fluorescence correspondingly increased and decreased as the glucose in the blood spiked and then waned.
Takeuchi is optimistic about the potential future application of the beads in continuous glucose tracking. He says they could ‘improve the quality of life for diabetic patients who currently suffer fingertip pricks every four hours or from being wired to a continuous glucose monitoring system.’
Raoul Kopelman, an expert in nanoscale chemical sensors for biomedical applications at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, US, describes the work as ‘a nice organic synthesis that puts a glucose indicator into a microparticle environment to make it biocompatible, without drastically reducing its performance.’ But he cautions that much development would still be needed to turn the beads into practical devices that could be approved by regulators, and presumably to convince patients to adopt the glowing glucose monitors.
The Term Paper on Diabetes Mellitus Blood Glucose
DIABETES MELLITUS Diabetes Mellitus-Is a multi system disease related to abnormal insulin production, impaired insulin utilization, or both. Diabetes Mellitus is a serious health problem throughout the world. It is the 5 th leading cause of death in the U. S.It is the leading cause of heart disease, stroke, adult blindness, and non traumatic lower limb amputations. Etiology and Pathophysiology ...