NY hospitals agree to stop flushing pharmaceuticals down the drain and polluting watershed
Jun 14, 2010
(NaturalNews) Five health care facilities have signed an agreement with
the New York Attorney General's Office to settle charges that they
polluted the state's watersheds by dumping pharmaceutical products down
sinks and toilets.
In 2008, and Associated Press investigation
revealed that the drinking water consumed by more than one-sixth of the
U.S. population is contaminated with trace (but potentially
biologically active) amounts of over-the-counter and prescription
drugs. While some of these chemicals enter sewage systems after being
excreted by people taking the drugs, many of them were traced back to a
common practice in hospitals and other health-care facilities:
disposing of unused pharmaceuticals by flushing them down sinks or
toilets.
After state tests of New York watersheds revealed
widespread pharmaceutical contamination, the Attorney General's Office
launched an investigation. Eventually, five facilities -- Putnam
Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Holmes in Putnam County, and
O'Connor Hospital, Countryside Care Center, Margaretville Memorial
Hospital and Mountainside Residential Care Center in Delaware County --
were charged with numerous federal and state violations, including
failure to properly track, label, store and dispose of drugs. The
hospitals and nursing homes were found to have improperly dumped
antibiotics, antidepressants, hormones, painkillers and other
pharmaceutical products directly into the state water supply.
The
watersheds contaminated supply water to New York City's eight million
residents, as well as another one million people in several counties to
the north.
Each facility will pay a fine of between $3,500 and
$12,500. Although state law does not prohibit the dumping of all
pharmaceuticals down the drain -- only some -- the facilities have
agreed to end the practice completely.
Ten other health care
facilities in the state are also being investigated for watershed
pollution through drug dumping. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo called
the practice "an emerging threat."
The Environmental Protection Agency has classified pharmaceutical products as "contaminants of growing concern."
Sources for this story include: www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticl....
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