MICROCONTAMINANTS

1. MICROCONTAMINANTS What Are They? Where Do They Come From? How Do They Get in Water? What Are You Going to Do? Presented by Ronald B. Linsky Executive Director National Water Research Institute

2. A Little Background The desire to drink pure and wholesome water dates from ancient times

3. Early Water Quality Expertise

4. Early Water Treatment Methods • Boiling • Exposure to Sun • Dipping Hot Copper Rods • Filtration

5. A Little U.S. History Perspective • Early 1800s First Community Water System • 1830s Chlorine introduced • 1860 400 Community Water Systems • 1883 First Federal DW Standards • 1890 Germ Theory • 1895 Louisville Water Company introduced coagulation with rapid sand filtration • 1900 3,000 Community Water Systems

6. And a Little More History Increasing Demand for Irrigation Waters Perfumes Sewers of Paris The Great Floods Thomas

7. Urban Centers 2002 • Of the world’s population (6 billion) today over 1/2 live in crowded urban centers. • The vast majority of these centers border oceans, lakes, rivers, or estuaries. • By 2050, it is estimated that over 2/3rds of the worlds population ( 9 Billion) will move into and become permanent residents of urban centers.

8. Growing Demand for Water Bilboa, Spain Istanbul ,Turkey New Orleans Los Angeles

9. The Primary Goals Remains Biologically and Chemically Safe Water

10. One Man’s DrugIs Another Man’s Drink! What are microcontaminants? • Tiny residues of medicine, household chemicals, perfumes, lotions, sunscreens, soaps, and pharmaceuticals (PhACs). • Not all the medicines taken are absorbed in the body. 30% Rule

11. How Tiny Are Microcontaminants? • Measured in parts per billion (ppb) or parts per trillion (ppt). • One ppb is the equivalent of one second in a time span of 32 years.

12. Population Perspective • US Population = 270,000,000. • On any given day 98% of the population are ingesting, knowingly or unknowingly, some form of a chemical or pharmaceutical compound.

13. U.S. Geological Survey • Testing California waters at 7 localities and found: • Chemicals of significance • cholesterol, plasticizers, polymers, insecticides, caffeine, triclosan, fumigants, solvents, detergents • Pharmaceuticals (PhACs) of significance • hormones, antibiotics, antidepressants, antiseptics, antitumor, impotency drugs, retinoids, musk, antimicrobial preservatives, disinfectants, sunscreens, nutritional supplements, codeine

14. Microcontaminants in Water and What They May Do • Hormones and Mimics • May interrupt reproduction in wildlife. • Antibiotics • Presence in low levels may lead to antibiotic resistant bacteria. • Blood Lipid Regulators • Most widely reported drug in European waters.

15. PhACs in Water… • Antidepressants • Increase activity of the neurotransmitter serotonin. • Effects reproduction in mollusks and fighting behavior in lobsters. • Prozac and Luvox are potent inducers of spawning in zebra mussels.

16. And More..…….. • Anti-Epileptics • Poorly removed by sewage treatment. • Found everywhere. • Some known to cause birth defects in humans.

17. And More…………. • Anti-Tumor Agents • Used in chemotherapy. • Found sporadically and in varied concentrations. • Largest source is probably hospitals. • Patients may secrete small amounts for years. • Concern is for their toxic effects and ability to cause subtle genetic changes.

18. And More………... • Impotency Drugs • One of the most common types of drugs, e.g., Viagra, sold over the Internet. • Very high potential for environmental exposure. • And now testosterone! 1.5 MM Rx/day

19. How About This…………. • Retinoids • Are derivatives of Vitamin A used to treat acne, skin wrinkles, and cancer. • Can have profound effects on embryonic development. • Have been theorized to play a role in some amphibian deformities.

20. And This………... • Synthetic Musk • Used in perfume, cosmetics, detergents, and toiletries. • Residues found in fish, mussels, and human breast milk. • Does not degrade easy. • Found throughout the world. • Highly toxic and may cause cancer.

21. Add This to the List…….. • Antimicrobial Preservatives • Found in skin creams, tanning lotions, toiletries, drugs, and foods. • Some have weak hormonal activity.

22. And This…………. • Disinfectants and Antiseptics • Triclosan has been used for over 30 years in toothpaste, Odor-eaters, hospital hand soaps, Clearsil, and Microban. • A slow release product added to a large range of plastic items from toys to cutting boards. • May lead to resistant bacteria.

23. How About This………. • Sunscreens • Found widely in fish from small lakes used for body contract sports. • Detected in human breast milk.

24. And Finally…………. • Nutritional Supplements/Herbal Remedies (The 30% Rule Again) • Can have potent physiologic effects. • Explosive usage over past decade. • Same potential effects as conventional drugs. • Not tightly controlled. • Used in higher concentrations than in nature.

25. What Research Indicates... • Measurements of such small quantities have only recently been possible. • New techniques - GC/MS/MS and HPLC/MS/MS- has allowed identification of polar compounds. • Putting scientifically acceptable meaning to these measurements will take many years.

26. What Research Indicates… • The amounts ingested are very small compared to the medical dose at which these drugs are prescribed. • We do not know what the effects are of long-term exposure to micro-dose levels.

27. What Research Indicates… • Found in drinking water supplies, wastewater, recycled waters, swimming pools, hot tubs, “bottled” waters, rivers, streams, lakes, bays and estuaries. • Caffeine, nicotine, and aspirin can slip through sewage treatment.

28. What Research Indicates… • In the 1990s, scientists in the UK observed endocrine disruption in fish exposed to wastewater effluent. • The feminization of male fish as indicated by males producing egg sac protein when exposed toundiluted wastewater.

29. What Research Indicates.. • Follow-up research to the UK work implicated… • estrogenic hormones (17ß-estradiol) • ethinyl estradiol (found in birth control pills) • concentrations @ ppt/L levels

30. What About the World Situation? • Monitoring throughout the world indicates that such compounds are everywhere. • New chemicals, drugs, and cosmetics come into the market place everyday. • Consumption is expected to increase as prescription medications are sold on the Internet.

31. Unrecognized Contributions Oregon Fires Sicilian Volcanoes Chinese Dust Storms

32. What Does All This Mean for Wastewater Dischargers? • New classes of contaminants may be extremely difficult to remove with standard treatment processes. • Larger problem is dischargers who must discharge into effluent-dominant surface waters.

33. Can These Compounds Be Removed by AWT Processes? • Reverse Osmosis (RO) removes hormones and probably many other contaminants. • Enhanced coagulation.

34. What Can Be Done? • It may be inappropriate to discharge secondary wastewater effluent with PhACs to surface waters. • Optimize AWT (RO & MF) systems. • Install alternative Cl– disinfection systems. • River Bank Filtration Systems (Pretreatment)

35. Are New Regulations Being Contemplated by Regulators? • Nothing on the books, yet! • USEPA is very concerned about endocrine disruption and pharmaceuticals (PhACs).

36. So Where Are We Today? • Research continues to seek understanding how microcontaminants affect humans. • Adverse effects of PhACs on human health is less likely because doses administered to humans are many orders of magnitude higher than those received from drinking water. • One significant issue continues to challenge researchers: • Once ingested, microcontaminants break down and shatter into dozens of new forms.

37. Pharmaceutical Strategies • Reformulating drugs may allow better adsorption with less waste. • Tailored doses that recognize an individual’s size, age, and condition.

38. Remember..….. • Just because people can detect extremely low levels it does not mean there is something worry about. • Natural Microcontaminants have probably been around since time immemorial.

39. Emerging Issues • Increasing reliance on water recycling to sustain an ever-expanding population. • Very little is known about potential health and ecological effects of exposure to chemicals in recycled water. • Primary source of recycled waters will continue to be municipal waste water effluent.

40. And Finally………….. • The chemical of recent concern is NDMA • N-nitrosodimethylamine. • Present in lubricants, pesticides, liquid rocket fuels, and foods, such as beer and hot dogs. • A priority pollutant under the Clean Water Act. • Appears after secondary effluent is chlorinated.

41. NDMA Characteristics • Clear yellow liquid • Hydrophilic • High solubility • Low Sorption • Moderately volatile • N-N bond photolysis by UV

42. NDMA Characteristics….. • Health Impacts • Probable human carcinogen • 10¯6 Cancer Risk = 0.7 ng/L (USEP) • Regulatory • CA Action level is 10 ng/L (FEB 2002)

43. Early NDMA Studies • N-nitrosoamine formation on GAC from N-methylaniline and nitrite (Dietrich et al,1986) • NDMA formation in tap water by strong ion exchange resins (Kimoto et al, 1980) • Concentration of NDMA levels in tap water by Ambersorb carbonaceous resins (Kimoto et al, 1984) • NDMA detection in Curtis Bay, MD at 0.08-2.7 ng/L (Fine & Roundbehler, 1976)

44. Water Reuse Task Force NWRI AWWARF WERF WateReuse Association Bureau of Reclamation

45. Current Research • Occurrence and formation (AWWARF) • Analytical techniques (WateReuse) • Precursors and formation mechanisms during water treatment (NWRI) • Monitoring programs associated with water treatment (OCWD, OCSD, LASCD, WB)

46. NWRI Research……. • Focused on estrogenic hormones • Measurements in wastewater effluent Concentration (ng/L)

47. NDMA Reaction Mechanism • Unresolved Issues • DMA • DMA precursors (e.g., polymers, ziram) • Catalysts

48. National Water Research Institute Thank You 10500 Ellis AvenueP.O. Box 10865Fountain Valley, CA 92728www.nwri-usa.org