Students Design Innovative Wastewater Treatment Process for Removing Pharmaceuticals
Ryerson University fourth-year Chemical Engineering students Pawel Kita, Charles Gilmour, Reuben Fernandes and Kirill Cheiko (from left). The foursome designed an award-winning advanced wastewater treatment system for the removal of pharmaceuticals. (Dario Ruberto / Ryerson University)
Ryerson University Chemical Engineering students have discovered a potential solution to the rising levels of pharmaceuticals ending up in the water supply, particularly worrisome around hospitals and long-term care facilities, where pharmaceutical use is heavy. The foursome has designed an advanced wastewater treatment system which would remove 90 per cent of pharmaceuticals and endocrine-disrupting compounds (EDCs) using commercially available technology. Currently no such sewage treatment plant exists in North America.
At a time when tap water is being hailed as the environmentally responsible choice over bottled water, the amount of pharmaceutical medications making their way into the water supply through improper disposal and bodily elimination warrants some concern. As part of their final-year undergraduate project, Kirill Cheiko, Reuben Fernandes, Charles Gilmour and Pawel Kita used research data from academic and industry sources to design an award-winning simulated wastewater treatment plant to deal with the potentially harmful waste. (more…)
Confessions of an Rx Drug Pusher by Gwen Olsen
Ex-pharmaceutical sales rep Gwen Olsen with her kitten, Sabrina.
Gwen Olsen spent fifteen years as a pharmaceutical sales rep working for such health care giants as Johnson & Johnson, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Abbott Laboratories. She enjoyed a successful, fast-paced career until several conscious-altering experiences began awakening her to the dangers lurking in every American medicine cabinet. Her most poignant lessons, however, came as both victim and survivor of life-threatening adverse drug reactions. After leaving pharmaceutical sales in 2000, Gwen worked in the natural foods industry first as an Account Manager for Nature’s Way, and then as a Regional Sales Manager for Gaia Herbs. She is currently a writer, speaker, and natural health consultant.
The United States health care system is killing Americans at an alarming rate, even though we spend over fifteen percent of the Gross National Product (GNP) on health care. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, our health care outcomes ranked only fifteenth among twenty-five industrialized nations worldwide. Adverse effects from prescription drugs have become the third-leading killer of Americans. Only heart disease and cancer claim more lives. We trust our doctors to inform us and our government to protect us from medical malfeasance that may put profits ahead of consumer health and safety. But the fine line walked by the FDA between the interests of the pharmaceutical manufacturers and the American public has continually been crossed. The result is the unleashing of an unprecedented number of lethal drugs on the U.S. market! (more…)
Tropics Discoveries Still Yeilding Possible New Medicines
Explorations for the Panamanian International Cooperative Biodiversity Groups (ICBG) program has included a variety of plants found in the country's tropical jungles.
William Gerwick is quite happy to tell you about his scientific expeditions to Fiji. He can expound on the amazing explorations his group has led to Madagascar, Papua New Guinea, and other destinations in search of exotic molecules that could one day lead to new treatments for human diseases.
But broach the subject of Panama and it’s time to get comfortable in your seat. The Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego professor’s palpable enthusiasm is rooted in his laboratory’s multifaceted drug discovery and training program that ranges from the Central American country’s rain forest jungles to its underwater world. (more…)
Drugs Sold in Sweden Cause Serious Environmental Harm Elsewhere
Main building of University of Gothenburg.
Many of the substances in our most common medicines are manufactured in India and China. Some of these factories release large quantities of antibiotics and other pharmaceutical substances to the environment. There is an obvious risk of these releases leading to resistant bacteria.
Research from the Sahlgrenska Academy at University of Gothenburg, Sweden, shows that Sweden is a major consumer of pharmaceutical substances from factories that fail to adequately treat their wastewater. As it is difficult to find out where the pharmaceutical substances are manufactured and how much is released, it is impossible at present for consumers to avoid contributing to this environmental harm.
These findings are presented in the medical journal Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology and are highlighted today in a news article in Nature. Last week the research of the Swedish group became headline news in New York Times, Washington Post and Times of India. (more…)
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