The Hidden Pollutants: Pharmaceutical Waste | Karthik Gurunathan | TEDxQUT

[Music] you go to your doctor for your annual checkup he does a couple of tests and he diagnoses you with high blood pressure after getting your prescription you go to your local pharmacy to get your medication a week passes and you notice you're developing an annoying cough a common side effect for the type of blood pressure medication you're taking so back to the doctor you go get the new medication and throw the old medication away this is a common scenario where we may obtain a medicine but not use all of it sometimes we need to adjust our dose antibiotic doses may not be finished it's just for a short-term condition or the medication expires before it's fully used but what do we do with the medication if we don't use them or can't use them we could throw the tablets into the bin we could drain the cough syrup down the sink some of us may even flush it down the toilet for ease of disposal but the moment we discard our leftover medicines we inadvertently contribute to a dangerous concoction of pollutants that negatively impacts our environment at the simple push of a flush button or the running of a sink faucet we begin to create a toxic environment that impacts the livelihood of local plants wildlife and even us let's take a step back and discuss why this is such a concern why is pharmaceutical waste so dangerous what we know about pharmaceuticals is changing in a breathtaking pace with the invention of new and innovative medicines for conditions from chronic pain to heart disease to infections to epilepsy pharmaceuticals today are treating conditions we never thought could be possible and to do this they're designed to be highly active compounds that target specific systems in the body for example my grandmother takes l-thyroxine a medication to compensate for an underactive thyroid gland previously desiccated thyroid glands from animals used to be the main stay in treatment but now we have synthetically created compounds that target the specific receptors in her body that need to be treated like the missing piece in a jigsaw puzzle we create the piece that will complete the picture these compounds are designed to be highly effective and such come in doses that are extremely small in the case my grandmother her dose is 25 micrograms to put that in perspective if she takes her dose daily for the next 110 years she'll have only taken one gram of the drug these compounds are designed to have an impact on our physiological systems at very low concentrations however at even lower concentrations these medications that us everyday people take can begin to affect other living creatures in our environment so how is pharmaceuticals already affect our environment over the past two decades there is mounting evidence of estrogenic chemicals such as those using the contraceptive pill causing widespread sexual disruption of wild populations of fish throughout the uk these are associated with sewage treatment plants which contain these chemicals and shows that fishes are affected from just the surrounding levels of pharmaceuticals present in british rivers other wastewater treatment plants such as in canada have been shown to contain high levels of common antidepressants even after the water has been treated only forty percent of these drugs were removed in these treatment facilities and river water samples several kilometers downstream still contain these drugs even if these medications only affect one species of fish there's a ripple effect changing the amount of food the predator has and subsequently changing the whole ecosystem in which the fish lives in there are three ways pharmaceuticals get released into our environment firstly is through the manufacture of medicines the production of pharmaceuticals is a complex process involving many stages of research development and clinical trials when drugs need to produce rapidly the generation of less hazardous waste may become an afterthought as individuals we cannot immediately change how drugs are designed and developed but i will touch on this aspect further later on the second way pharmaceuticals get released is through the consumption of medicines when we consume medicines our body processes these drugs although not all of the drug is necessarily absorbed through our urinal feces a major portion of the drug may end up in wastewater facilities wastewater treatment facilities are not designed to handle pharmaceuticals they're designed to deal with conventional pollutants like biodegradable organic matter treated wastewater either goes into our oceans used onto our crops for irrigation and the sludge that comes out of sewage is spread onto our land as fertilizer this can impact many areas in australia especially those that reuse a lot of water the filtration systems used in these areas are not designed to break down pharmaceuticals and as such can lead to issues such as contaminants being concentrated and reintroduced into the environment after the water has been filtered the third way pharmaceuticals get released into our environment is through the disposal of medicines as stated earlier wastewater treatment facilities are not designed to handle pharmaceuticals and as such are one of the avenues for environmental pollution in addition when medicines end up in landfill they can get absorbed into the ground through landfill leachate meaning where the water flows through the solid material and absorbs some of its constituents this can affect plants and wildlife living near these areas however the good news is we can change how we consume and dispose of medicines there are several ways to improve how we dispose of medicines from a micro individual level up to a macro level involving education and government systems firstly leftover medicines should be returned to pharmacies did you know that in australia we have a return of unwanted medicine spins meaning you can return any unused medication to any pharmacy this stops them getting into the landfill or pour down the sink drugs put into these bins are exposed to high temperature incineration which break down these drugs and reduce their environmental impact items such as inhalers and patches can have a large amount of pharmaceutical active ingredient still present even after they've been used so it's imperative they're returned once used in addition sharps like needles used for diabetes hormone replacement therapy and other conditions should be put into yellow medical waste bins and given to pharmacies where they'll be put into specific yellow bins the sharps put into these bins are exposed to high temperatures and pressures which destroy the drugs inside secondly minimization by education educate yourself on the medicines you are taking by asking a doctor or pharmacist many medicines are improperly prescribed or the quantity far exceeds what you need to consume such as for antibiotics check if you can only get the required quantity for the duration of treatment for example if you only need 10 tablets there is no need to get a box of 21 or 30. if you have a chronic condition regularly visit your doctor and consult with them about the medicines you are taking in some cases your condition may have improved enough not to require them finally speak out about this global issue to bring about changes in government policies such as green economic incentives rewarding green companies and green products australia utilizes 59 of dried sewage sludge for agriculture and although these are tested for contaminants such as pesticides and heavy metals there is no specific testing requirement for pharmaceutical contamination we need governments to change their laws and incentivize the implementation of existing water filtration systems and invest in innovation of filtration systems for regions without the capabilities to handle complex filtration systems we need legal requirements for manufacturers and waste treatment facilities to ensure they produce less damaging waste especially during the drug development phase when procedures can be redesigned to minimize the dangerous waste produced this issue of pharmaceutical waste is a complex one we have not yet clarified which medications present the highest risk to our environment we know that likely contributors include antibiotics and medications that affect our hormones however the complex mixtures of various drugs that are constantly being put into our oceans rivers and into our land presence us with an issue in analyzing these substances with such a large concentration of people living in urban areas we are faced with issues in waste management of pharmaceuticals the current impact to our aquatic life should signal us an early warning bell on the impact of inappropriate disposal of pharmaceuticals and i hope next time you'll think twice about throwing your medications into the bin or pouring it down the sink [Applause] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 4,541

Keywords: English, Environment, Global Issues, Health, Humanity, Pharmaceuticals, TEDxTalks

Id: lVW85UXNooM

Length: 9min 44sec (584 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 18 2021