Drug makers may be required to collect expired medicines to keep water in streams clean

A recent study found world’s highest drug levels in stream near Patancheru, Hyderabad in India.

Pharmaceutical producers will be asked to collect and dispose of  expired medicine packs from drug stores and hospitals to keep the medication out of rivers and streams.

Perry’s Bill in Maine: An Act to Support Collection and Proper Disposal of Unwanted Drugs, LD 821

A legislation the would require drug makers to collect and dispose of unused medications that might otherwise be misused or flushed into rivers and streams, is being debated in Maine.

An Act to Support Collection and Proper Disposal of Unwanted Drugs, LD 821, will be the focus of a work session by the Health and Human Services Committee in Maine.

State agencies and both public health and environmental advocates have been strongly supporting the idea.

The idea received strong support from during a legislative hearing this month. But strong opposition from the pharmaceutical industry means it might be headed for postponement, or defeat.

“There was a great deal of support,” said Rep. Anne Perry, D-Calais, the bill’s sponsor. But “obviously, the drug companies don’t want to see this.”

The Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee is expected to decide Thursday whether to move the bill forward.

Related stories abut drug dumping and pharma pollutionfrom around the Web

• Factories dumping drugs into sewage
• Unused drugs flushed into drinking water
• World’s Highest Drug Pollution Levels Found In Indian Stream

The new act –also known as Perry’s bill – pharmaceutical manufacturers are required to set up a system for collecting prescription and over-the-counter medications that are expired or no longer wanted, by January.

If  Maine could successfully pass the bill, it would have to include a system for the public to mail in unwanted pills.

The new bill is viewed in the backdrop of growing concern worldwide about small amounts of pharmaceuticals showing up in waterways and drinking-water supplies.

The new  collection system could cost drug makers $700,000 a year if 10 percent of Mainers participate, and nearly $2 million a year if 40 percent of the population turns in medications, according to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection estimates.

“For an industry that spent $10 billion on prescription drug advertising in 2007, “this is a drop in the bucket,” said Ann Pistell, a DEP environmental specialist.

However, the pharmaceutical industry, which opposes the bill tooth-and-nail argues that  the cost burden would actually be much higher, perhaps more than $20 million a year.

“All of our scientific studies and some other groups’ studies say if you dispose of unused medicines in the household trash, that is a safe way of disposing it,” said Marjorie Powell, senior assistant general counsel for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

Maine is one of at least five states to take up a legislative proposal for an industry-financed collection system, although none of the bills has made it into law so far.

Not only in the US, dumping of pharmaceuticals in streams and rivers has become a big environmental issue around the world.

Drug dumping in Indian streams

Recently, a study found world’s highest drug levels in stream near Patancheru, Hyderabad. The supposedly cleaned water from the river had 21 active pharma ingredients; half were at the highest levels ever detected.

About 90 Indian drug factories dump their residues into this stream in Patancheru – a south Indian town.

When researchers analysed vials of treated waste water taken from a plant they detected enough amount of the antibiotic ciprofloxacin was being spewed into one stream each day to treat every person in a city of 90,000.

Those factories produce drugs for much of the world.

“If you take a bath there, then you have all the antibiotics you need for treatment,” said chemist Klaus Kuemmerer at the University of Freiburg Medical Center in Germany, who did not participate in the research.

The researchers also found high drug concentration levels in lakes upstream from the treatment plant, indicating potential illegal dumping of pharmaceuticals.

India is currently,  one of the world’s top exporters of pharmaceuticals, and the US—which spent $1.4 billion (Rs6,900 crore) on Indian-made drugs in 2007—is its largest customer.