The Challenge:
Providing water that is biologically and chemically safe in resource constrained and developing communities.
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Talking Toxic Chemicals:
Global ObGyns Urge Prevention
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A short video produced by the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) on reproductive health impacts of exposure to toxic environmental chemicals.
"It is obvious, although difficult to quantify, that the use of hazardous chemicals in low- and middle-income countries poses a grave threat to the environment and to human health, often affecting the already vulnerable and poor fraction of the population...Despite data being scarce and/or fragmented, it is safe to conclude that the situation is alarming and that there is a trend that this situation is getting worse."
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- Chemical Pollution in Low- and Middle-Income Countries, Eawag Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology
Pollution by synthetic organic chemical contaminants: a widespread problem overlooked by the WASH development sector
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Environmentally persistent trace pollutants – such as pesticide runoff, pharmaceutical and personal care product residues, industrial effluents, manufacturing additives, disinfection by-products, as well as naturally occurring toxins – impact water sources and threaten public health in communities around the world. Pollution by synthetic chemical contaminants is often more severe in developing countries compared to affluent regions as many compounds that have been banned or restricted in Europe and North America are used or disposed of throughout the developing world in an unregulated manner. Exposure to these chemicals can lead to cancer, birth defects, reproductive disorders, endocrine disruption, neurological dysfunction, organ damage, and other acute and chronic health problems.
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Chemicals that mimic natural hormones and thereby disrupt the endocrine system are commonly associated with the processes, products, and wastes from the manufacture of pesticides, plastics, pharmaceuticals, furniture, electronics, and thousands of other common consumer products that emerge from factories and end up in recycling/disposal sites throughout the developing world. Recent research has indicated with greater than 99% certainty that exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals is linked to neurological effects such as attention deficit disorders, obesity and diabetes, and male reproductive disorders including infertility [1-6]. Some of the most troubling and costly impacts are associated with effects on children's developing brains – numerous studies have linked widely used pesticides and flame retardants to neurological disorders and altered thyroid hormones, which are essential for proper prenatal brain development [1].
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A dossier of prevalent chemical toxins impacts drinking water sources worldwide
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China – “Water polluted by industry and agriculture is the biggest environmental problem in China”
In China, pharmaceutical residues, industrial pollutants and agricultural runoff heavily impact water sources [7, 8]. One researcher [8] notes that, “one-fifth of the [China’s] Yellow River…should not be used for drinking, energy production, or irrigation; about 40 percent of the Hai River, which supports major food-producing areas in the northeast, is considered unusable…nearly 15 percent of China’s major rivers are not fit for any use, and more than half of the groundwater nationwide is categorized as ‘polluted’ or ‘extremely polluted,’ according to government statistics.”
More than half of China’s water pollution comes from agriculture in the form of fertilizers, pesticides, and livestock wastes that are carried into lakes, rivers, wetlands, coastal waters, and underground aquifers by rainfall and snowmelt; villagers and farmers are frequently forced to use contaminated water for lack of alternative water sources [8].
A recent survey of 2,103 shallow wells across the heavily populated plains of China found that water from more than 80 percent of wells is unfit for drinking or bathing because of contamination from industry and farming [9].
As in most low- and middle- income countries around the world, the most prevalent form of water treatment in China is boiling – which eliminates microbial pathogens but is not effective for controlling trace chemicals contaminants, and can even concentrate them in water used for consumption.
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“Poison Over Poverty” – Environmental and Human Health Costs of Informal E-Waste Recycling
As recently reported in Nature, "Rich nations with strict legislation send most of their e-waste to developing countries."
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In developing countries recieving e-waste, legislation is non-existent, or eixists but is not effecitvely enforced.
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According to the Nature article: The quantity of dumped computers, telephones, televisions and appliances doubled between 2009 and 2014, to 42 million tonnes per year globally. China processed about 70% of the world’s e-waste in 2012; the rest goes to India and other countries in eastern Asia and Africa, including Ghana and Nigeria. An estimated 50,000 tonnes of e-waste from developed countries was dumped in India in 2012.
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N.B.: The summary below draws heavily upon two recent reviews by Perkins et al. (2014) [22] and Heacock et al. (2016) [23].
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With the usage of electrical and electronic equipment on the rise, the amount of e-waste is growing enormously. Global e-waste generation was estimated to be 46 million tons in 2014 and may increase to 72 million tons by 2017. Although e-waste is not generated exclusively by wealthy countries, such countries contribute substantially to e-waste problems in low- to middle-income countries because of regulatory ambiguities that allow its export for re-use or recycling.
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Informal e-waste recycling has become a source of income for people who have few other economic opportunities in many developing or emerging industrialized countries. It is estimated that 75% to 80% is shipped to countries in Asia and Africa for “recycling” and disposal. However, developing countries lack the technology, facilities, and resources needed to properly recycle and dispose of e-waste. As little as 25% of e-waste is recycled in formal recycling centers with adequate worker protection.
E-waste plays a significant employment role in the recycling sectors of countries including China, India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Ghana, and Nigeria. For example, in Guiyu, China, possibly the largest e-waste recycling location in the world, about 100,000 people are employed as e-waste recyclers. In India, an estimated 25,000 workers are employed at unregulated e-waste sites in Delhi alone, where 10,000 to 20,000 tons of e-waste is processed annually. The Agbogbloshie area of Ghana, where about 40,000 people live, is one of the largest informal e-waste dumping and processing sites in Africa, receiving about 215,000 tons of secondhand consumer electronics annually.
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Where does our e-waste go? See Monitour - MIT's interactive e-waste tracking web application, and the Step Initiative's e-Waste World Map.
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A plethora of chemical toxins has been identified in e-waste streams including heavy metals, PAHs, PCBs, dioxins, and brominated flame retardants such as PDBEs. The health consequences of both direct exposures during recycling and indirect exposures through environmental contamination are potentially severe but poorly studied. Studies have indicated that hazardous substances have migrated from e-waste processing sites into ecosystems – surrounding populations have been exposed to harmful substances emanating from e-waste through water, air, soil, dust, and food. Infants from e-waste polluted areas were shown to consume at least 25 times the WHO tolerable daily intake of dioxins compared to non e-waste polluted areas [24].
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The potential adverse health effects of exposure to compounds released from e-waste can include changes in lung function, thyroid function, hormone expression, low birth weight and childhood growth rates, mental health, cognitive development, and genotoxity. Exposure to chemicals produced from the breakdown of e-waste can also have carcinogenic and endocrine disrupting effects that lead to neurodevelopment anomalies, abnormal reproductive development, and cognitive impairment. A noted component of e-waste, brominated flame retardants, are environmentally persistent and lead to impaired learning and memory function, altered thyroid, estrogen, and hormone systems, behavioral problems, and neurotoxicity. Children are often disproportionately affected by chemical exposure due to their increased susceptibility compared with adults, and because they are commonly employed as laborers in informal e-waste recycling because their small hands make them ideal to dismantle equipment.
Several international efforts have been established in response to the large and increasing deleterious environmental and human health effects of e-waste. These include: the Basel Convention regulating trans-boundary movement and disposal of hazardous wastes (1992); the Bangkok Statement on Children’s Environmental Health (2002); the Solving the E-Waste Problem (StEP) Initiative (2007); the Bali Declaration on Waste Management for Human Health and Livelihood (2008); the Busan Pledge for Action on Children’s Environmental Health (2009); the WHO’s Geneva Meeting on E-waste and Children’s Health (2013); and the Pacific Basin Consortium for Environment and Health and WHO’s E-waste and Child Health Initiative (2014).
The WASH sector has an important contribution to make to these initiatives through development of safe water technologies that mitigate communities’ – and especially children’s – exposure to hazardous chemical substances released from the breakdown of e-waste.
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References
1. Grossman, E. Chemical Exposure Linked to Billions in Health Care Costs. National Geographic, 2015.
2. Woodruff, T.J., Making It Real—The Environmental Burden of Disease. What Does It Take to Make People Pay Attention to the Environment and Health? The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 2015. 100(4): p. 1241-1244.
3. Bellanger, M., B. Demeneix, P. Grandjean, R.T. Zoeller, and L. Trasande, Neurobehavioral Deficits, Diseases, and Associated Costs of Exposure to Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals in the European Union. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 2015. 100(4): p. 1256-1266.
4. Trasande, L., R.T. Zoeller, U. Hass, A. Kortenkamp, P. Grandjean, J.P. Myers, J. DiGangi, M. Bellanger, R. Hauser, J. Legler, N.E. Skakkebaek, and J.J. Heindel, Estimating Burden and Disease Costs of Exposure to Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals in the European Union. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 2015. 100(4): p. 1245-1255.
5. Hauser, R., N.E. Skakkebaek, U. Hass, J. Toppari, A. Juul, A.M. Andersson, A. Kortenkamp, J.J. Heindel, and L. Trasande, Male Reproductive Disorders, Diseases, and Costs of Exposure to Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals in the European Union. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 2015. 100(4): p. 1267-1277.
6. Legler, J., T. Fletcher, E. Govarts, M. Porta, B. Blumberg, J.J. Heindel, and L. Trasande, Obesity, Diabetes, and Associated Costs of Exposure to Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals in the European Union. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 2015. 100(4): p. 1278-1288.
7. Yingchun, G. NW China's drug companies in water pollution scandal. China.org, 2013.
8. Ivanova, N. Toxic Water: Across Much of China, Huge Harvests Irrigated with Industrial and Agricultural Runoff. 2013.
9. Buckley, C. and V. Piao, Rural Water, Not City Smog, May Be China’s Pollution Nightmare, in New York Times. 2016.
10. Lubick, N., India's drug problem. Nature, 2009. 457(7230): p. 640-641.
11. Carlsson, G., S. Orn, and D.G.J. Larsson, Effluent from Bulk Drug Production Is Toxic to Aquatic Vertebrates. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 2009. 28(12): p. 2656-2662.
12. Larsson, D.G.J., C. de Pedro, and N. Paxeus, Effluent from drug manufactures contains extremely high levels of pharmaceuticals. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 2007. 148(3): p. 751-755.
13. Fulmer, A., Background Technical Information for Poly- and Perfluoroalkyl Substances (PFASs or PFCs), W.R. Foundation, Editor. 2016.
14. Lindstrom, A.B., M.J. Strynar, and E.L. Libelo, Polyfluorinated Compounds: Past, Present, and Future. Environmental Science & Technology, 2011. 45(19): p. 7954-7961.
15. Dickenson, E. and C.P. Higgins, Treatment Mitigation Strategies for Poly- and Perfluoroalkyl Substances. 2016.
16. Kannan, K., S. Corsolini, J. Falandysz, G. Fillmann, K.S. Kumar, B.G. Loganathan, M.A. Mohd, J. Olivero, N. Van Wouwe, J.H. Yang, and K.M. Aldous, Perfluorooctanesulfonate and related fluorochemicals in human blood from several countries. Environmental Science & Technology, 2004. 38(17): p. 4489-4495.
17. Lerner, S., Teflon toxin contamination has spread throughout the world, in The Intercept. 2016.
18. Heydebreck, F., J.H. Tang, Z.Y. Xie, and R. Ebinghaus, Alternative and Legacy Perfluoroalkyl Substances: Differences between European and Chinese River/Estuary Systems (vol 49, pg 8386, 2015). Environmental Science & Technology, 2015. 49(24): p. 14742-14743.
19. Sharma, B.M., G.K. Bharat, S. Tayal, T. Larssen, J. Becanova, P. Karaskova, P.G. Whitehead, M.N. Futter, D. Butterfield, and L. Nizzetto, Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in river and ground/drinking water of the Ganges River basin: Emissions and implications for human exposure. Environmental Pollution, 2016. 208: p. 704-713.
20. Mudumbi, J.B.N., S.K.O. Ntwampe, F.M. Muganza, and J.O. Okonkwo, Perfluorooctanoate and perfluorooctane sulfonate in South African river water. Water Science and Technology, 2014. 69(1): p. 185-194.
21. Rylander, C., T.P. Duong, J.O. Odland, and T.M. Sandanger, Perfluorinated compounds in delivering women from south central Vietnam. Journal of Environmental Monitoring, 2009. 11(11): p. 2002-2008.
22. Perkins, D.N., M.N.B. Drisse, T. Nxele, and P.D. Sly, E-Waste: A Global Hazard. Annals of Global Health, 2014. 80(4): p. 286-295.
23. Heacock, M., C. Kelly, K. Asante, L. Birnbaum, A. Bergman, M. Bruné, I. Buka, D. Carpenter, A. Chen, X. Huo, M. Kamel, P. Landrigan, F. Magalini, F. Diaz-Barriga, M. Neira, M. Omar, A. Pascale, M. Ruchirawat, L. Sly, P. Sly, M. Van den Berg, and W. Suk, E-waste and harm to vulnerable populations: a growing global problem. Environmental Health Perspectives, 2016. 124: p. 550–555.
24. Laborde, A., E-Waste and Children's Health: Training for Health Care Providers - Electrical/Electronic Waste and Chilren's Health DRAFT. no date given, World Health Organization.
25. Stehle, S. and R. Schulz, Agricultural insecticides threaten surface waters at the global scale. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2015.
26. PAN. PAN Pesticide Database. 2013; Available from: http://www.pesticideinfo.org
27. Network), P.P.A. PAN INTERNATIONAL CONSOLIDATED LIST OF BANNED PESTICIDES. 2015 [cited 2016 June 17]; Available from: http://pan-international.org/pan-international-consolidated-list-of-banned-pesticides/.
28. WHO The WHO Recommended Classification of Pesticides By Hazard and Guidelines to Classification. 2009.
29. Kearns, J.P., D.R.U. Knappe, and R.S. Summers, Synthetic organic water contaminants in developing communities: an overlooked challenge addressed by adsorption with locally generated char. Journal of Water Sanitation and Hygiene for Development, 2014. 4(3): p. 422-436.
"India's Drug Problem"
Recent studies have indicated some of the highest levels of pharmaceutical residues ever detected in environmental waters in India [10-12].
A study of effluent from one wastewater treatment facility in India, which treats water from around 90 pharmaceutical manufacturers in the region, found drugs including ciprofloxacin and cetirizine at concentrations up to 31 and 1.4 mg/L, respectively. The authors estimated that around 45 kg/day of ciprofloxacin were entering the river from this single treatment plant; water from the river is used by surrounding villages for agricultural and household use [10].
Pharmaceutical residues were also detected in lakes in the region that do not receive effluent from the treatment plant, indicating the tendency of these chemicals to migrate through aquatic ecosystems, and/or the propensity of clandestine waste disposal practices.
These new residues contribute to a legacy of pollution in the region’s groundwater and surface water from three decades of chemical manufacturing [10].
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According to Eawag, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology: "More than 3,000 active pharmaceutical ingredients are currently in use. The consistent use of pharmaceuticals results in an omnipresent contamination of the environment by active pharmaceutical ingredients or their transformation products. Increasingly, research in environmental toxicology and environmental chemistry, driven by improved analytical techniques, has resulted in better knowledge about pharmaceuticals in the environment. The occurrence and fate of pharmaceuticals in the environment have been extensively assessed and documented for high-income countries, whereas data is limited for the low- and middle-income country context. This is critical as the bulk of pharmaceutical production is in these countries. For example, China, India, and Pakistan are all producing large amounts of active pharmaceutical ingredients as a result of increasing demand and their lower production costs. Often the wastewater effluents, released without treatment into the environment, are important sources of pollution for such compounds. Use of active pharmaceutical ingredients increases with the availability of cheap generic drugs, improving living standards, and population growth. Finally, the rapid increase in intensive livestock farming (aquaculture and cattle, poultry, and pork) goes hand in hand with an increased use of active veterinary pharmaceutical ingredients. Pharmaceuticals are found in many organisms in the environment and influence their development, reproduction, and behavior"
“PFCs – Teflon does stick (around)”
Perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) are an emerging class of environmentally persistent suspected endocrine disruptors originating from the chemical industry and product manufacturing. PFCs are extremely recalcitrant and persistent in the environment and occur ubiquitously in environments worldwide [13, 14].
PFCs have been detected in all types of waters throughout the world including surface, ground, tap and bottled waters, wastewater influents and effluents, industrial waste influents and effluents, and rivers, lakes, and tributaries with concentrations ranging up to μg/L in some cases [14, 15].
As a class of compounds they are very water soluble, and can enter source waters through industrial releases, discharges from wastewater treatment plants, stormwater runoff, release of firefighting foams, and land application of contaminated biosolids. Although major US manufacturers are beginning to phase out production of some primary PFC congeners, environmental contamination and human exposure to these compounds is expected to continue far into the future due to their environmental persistence and continued manufacture in developing countries [15].
PFCs can be found in human blood in nearly all US residents, and have been detected in the bodily fluids of people living around the world, including developing countries such as Colombia, Brazil, India, and Malaysia [16]. They can cause hepatic, developmental, immune, neurobehavioral, endocrine, and metabolic toxicity, and some PFCs have been identified as likely carcinogens [13]. The presence of PFCs in human breast milk and umbilical cord blood, and the fact that serum levels in infants and children are generally higher than in adults, imply concerning developmental effects on children [13].
In China, where at least 56 companies produce PFCs [17], high levels – totaling approximately 65-650 μg/L – have been detected in the Xiaoqing River [18], and a fishery worker on Tangxun Lake had the highest level of one PFC congener – PFOS – ever detected in human blood: 31,400 ppb [17]. In India, 15 different PFCs have been detected in the Ganges River, and concentrations and trends in groundwater in the region were generally similar to those observed in Ganges River water [19]. In South Africa, PFC congeners PFOA and PFOS were detected at tens to hundreds of ng/L in 100 percent of samples from three major river systems [20]. In Vietnam a study found PFCs present in blood at elevated levels in 98-100% of women giving birth [21].
PNAS on Agrichemicals
A study recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences [25] concluded that agricultural insecticides threaten surface waters at the global scale.
This meta-analysis of 838 peer-reviewed papers published between 1962-2012 covering >2,500 sites in 73 countries around the world, focusing on 28 widely used insecticides found, for example
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* A troubling lack of water quality data: No scientific investigations of insecticide surface water exposure exist for ~90% of high-intensity agricultural areas. (As the largest terrestrial biome, agriculture currently occupies ~40% of the world's land surface.)
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* Where insecticides were detected (11,300 cases), 52.4% exceeded regulatory thresholds for surface waters or sediments, sometimes by a factor of ≥10,000x.
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* In developing countries, exceedances of regulatory level threshold values for insecticides in surface waters were significantly more frequent than in affluent countries. And, in contrast to recent trends in developed countries, the risks of organochlorine and organophosphorus insecticide exposure in developing countries have increased over the last three decades due to increased insecticide use and simultaneously weak or even nonexistent pesticide regulation schemes.
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* In >80% of the samples multiple pesticides were detected (mixture effects are not considered in regulatory risk assessment procedures).
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According to Eawag, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology: "The US EPA estimates that worldwide about 2.4 million tonnes of active pesticide ingredients are used each year. With population growth and increased intensification of agriculture, the use and application of pesticides is steadily increasing. Currently, about 1300 active pesticide substances are in use. Pesticides are highly bioactive even at low concentrations and exposure to pesticides is known to impair human and environmental health. Extremely hazardous pesticides, which are banned in high-income countries, are still being stockpiled or even used in low- and middle-income countries. This use, linked to poor education on the handling of pesticides, limited awareness of their toxicity, the lack of regulations, and an overall lack of appropriate measures of risk mitigation, results in millions of people suffering from pesticide poisoning."
Hidden In Plain Sight
In May 2016, when traveling to a project site, Aqueous Solutions’ team members stopped at a roadside agricultural shop near the town of Paukkhaung in central Myanmar. The team recorded as many active ingredients listed on agrichemical product containers as possible in ten minutes.
Using online resources from the Pesticide Action Network [26, 27] and the World Health Organization [28], of the 28 active ingredients identified
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15 are moderate to high in acute toxicity
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8 are possible carcinogens and 2 are probable carcinogens
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6 are neurotoxins
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3 are developmental and/or reproductive toxins
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12 are suspected endocrine disruptors
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16 are likely threats to groundwater contamination
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9 are classified by WHO as “moderately hazardous” (class II), and 3 are “highly hazardous” (class Ib)
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13 are banned in at least one country, 8 are banned throughout the EU (28 countries), and 4 are banned in 35 or more countries. One compound – carbofuran – is banned in 46 countries and is severely restricted in the US.
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These data are obviously anecdotal – but nonetheless, this rapid informal survey underscores the proliferation and easy access – even in some of the poorest rural communities – of synthetic agrichemicals with demonstrated deleterious ecological and human health impacts.
This recent spot-survey is in agreement with a more expansive field survey conducted several years ago in a different region of SE Asia that was published along with a literature review of agrichemical use and compound detection in community water sources [29].
Need more details? Contact us
We are here to assist. Contact us by phone, email or via our social media channels.
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Web
aqsolutions.org
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Conveners
Josh Kearns
(+1) 720 989 3959
josh [at] aqsolutions [dot] org
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Anne Mikelonis
(+1) 919 541 0579
mikelonis.anne [at] epa [dot] gov