Queens Tribune

In one single day, 480 pounds of pharmaceuticals were collected by the town of North Hempstead and heaped into bins to be hauled elsewhere. North Hempstead debuted the Town’s pharmaceutical drop-off program in June of this year.

The New York City Department of Sanitation has no such collection program for pharmaceutical waste.

Frances Reid, the director of North Hempstead’s Solid Waste Management Authority, marveled at how just tiny pills could compound to create such a mass.

The Queens Tribune had previously reported that dozens of hazardous household chemicals, including ammonia and oven cleaner, are offered no final resting place by the Sanitation Department – in Queens, or citywide.

Food Chain Effects
Council Environmental Protection Committee Chairman Jim Gennaro (D-Fresh Meadows) reported that 14 of the City’s sewage treatment plants discharge to the City’s water bodies.

Pharmaceuticals that are flushed down the toilet or washed down a drain and worked through sewage treatment plants do not lose their chemical signature, according to Dr. James Cervino of Pace University, a visiting scientist of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.

“How it would get to us is through the food chain,” Cervino said, explaining that the treated water with lingering pharmaceuticals gets pumped back into waterways like the East River, Long Island Sound and the Hudson. When people eat from those fish populations, they are ingesting the medication like ibuprofen, birth control, Prozac, or aspirin that has worked its way through those animals.

Cervino believes the pharmaceuticals have the potential to mutate human cells, causing cancer. A study done by Rouen Medical Center in France showed 31 out of 38 samples taken of wastewater had the ability to mutate genes – though Dr. Greg Masson, chief of the branch of environmental contaminants of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is not as convinced of its ability to effect humane genes.

“It may or may not,” he said.

Studies have also implicated human urine as a source for the wastewater contamination, as opposed to deliberate flushing of unwanted or expired medications.

Other Ways And Effects
Disposal of medication in the trash also creates the potential for pharmaceutical residue to leach into the ground, and eventually leach to waterways through runoff or other means.

“There is no easy answer to the disposal of unwanted medications. Discarding them in the trash can increase the risk of unauthorized use, while flushing down the toilet can contaminate the water supply,” advises the Department of Sanitation. They recommend that people read printed materials accompanying medication for instructions. Before being tossed, drugs should be mixed with an “undesirable substance” like coffee grounds or cat litter.

A three part Associated Press investigation found that at least 41 million Americans were drinking water contaminated with trace amounts of antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and hormones. The medications are measured in parts per billion or trillion, far below the levels of a medical dose – though the presence of prescription drugs and over-the-counters like acetaminophen and ibuprofen is “heightening worries among scientists of long-term consequences to human health,” according to the report.

What Can Work?
Community Board 11 member Andy Rothman lamented that New York does not have a public dump which safely accepts those common toxins, while Hempstead has a comprehensive Stop Throwing Out Pollutants program.

“NYC should have a STOP program to protect our environment, to prevent people from disposing of hazardous waste down the sewer, (which will end up in our waterways), and to help prevent people from accumulating too many flammable items in their garages. Such a program will enable New York City residents to dispose of dangerous materials in a safe, and legal manner,” said Rothman.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced in November 2008 that it is seeking to add hazardous pharmaceutical waste to the Universal Waste Rule to “provide a system for disposing hazardous pharmaceutical wastes that is protective of public health and the environment.” In addition to creating a more streamlined waste management process for “generators” like pharmacies, hospitals, dentists’ offices and other entities which amass large amounts of pharmaceutical waste, the EPA said that would also facilitate the collection of medication from individuals at different management facilities.

In June, local residents came to the STOP program’s facility in Port Washington, and dropped off medications anonymously. “I have so many stories,” Reid said. “We had medicine from different counties. We had bags of narcotics the likes of which you’ve never seen before in your life.” Reid said the town sees 750-1,000 residents on average participating in a STOP event.

Reid said pharmaceuticals should be incinerated, which is what the town’s private contracting company does with them, she believes.

Not Just Residents
Compounding the problem are the health care facilities that flush expired and unneeded medication down the drain, according to the report.

Five hospitals which responded to an informal Queens Tribune survey of all the hospitals in Queens said a private hauling company is used to dispose of their waste. Those hospitals include Long Island Jewish and Forest Hills, Elmhurst Hospital, New York Hospital Medical Center and Jamaica Hospital. A reverse distributor, which accepts back unwanted medications, selling them back to the manufacturer and cutting hospitals in on a manufacturer credit, was a popular method. Reverse manufacturers usually incinerate the unwanted meds at high temperatures, eliminating the chance for them to leach.

“The hospitals are one piece of this, but it’s the people at home,” NYHQ spokeswoman Debbie Cohen said; “none of these [government] regulations deal with patients’ home disposal of medication.”

A Flicker Of Hope
The College Point transfer station, which no longer receives standard household trash, accepts certain potentially harmful refuse not collected from the can, including automotive batteries, motor oil, motor oil filters, passenger car tires, transmission fluids, fluorescent light bulbs, thermostats, household batteries and latex paint.

Certain items, like car batteries and empty paint cans, are also accepted back by vendors. City drop-off sites do not accept other common pollutants like paint thinner, aerosol cans, or more menacing substances like bagged asbestos.

Dept. of Sanitation spokeswoman Kathy Dawkins said a STOP program in the vein of what North Hempstead has is not so much a problem of finding funds, as installing the apparatus to accept such materials. “Whatever we take is what we take,” she said.

According to North Hempstead’s Reid, the only apparatus needed for STOP program collections – including the pharmaceutical collections – are containers. Her department has a budget to publicize the program, and of course, contract a hauler to dispose of the waste outside the auspices of the town.

The City has no plans to expand its Special Waste program.

Perhaps of some limited encouragement to Rothman, Dawkins said she imagines the commissioner would look over a petition, if one was sent to him.

A project to be executed at the College Point waste transfer station, promises to eliminate any leaching of any waste into soil and water – but has a three-year construction period, which commenced in September. The North Shore Marine Transfer Station would have waste trucked to a three level indoor station in completely encasing trucks, onto sealed leak proof containers for barging.

Queens waste currently goes by trucks – which are not as leach proof, and use gas fuel – to New York and New Jersey facilities. “Not the most environmental thing we do for our neighbors,” said Councilman-Elect Dan Halloran (R-Bayside), who district encompasses the waste transfer station.

The North Shore MTS, once completed, will average about 2,000 tons of waste per day. A similar project in Staten Island already averages 850 tons per day. Cervino lauded the project, as did Halloran.

“A STOP program, as an alternative is better than what we’re not doing now,” said Halloran.

Reach Reporter Lori Gross at lgross@queenstribune.com, or (718) 357-7400, Ext. 124.