It's Not Easy Being Green
This article was originally published in SRA
Executive Summary
“The mere presence of a [pharmaceutical] substance in water does not mean harm will result.” Over the past several months, there has been increasing pressure on the pharmaceutical industry and regulators to verify this statement made by Alan Goldhammer, US industry association PhRMA's deputy vice president, regulatory affairs, at a congressional hearing in April1. A subcommittee of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee held the hearing a month after media reports revealed that traces of various drugs were found in the drinking water of 24 major US metropolitan areas - resulting in demands for new reassurances about the safety of drugs, albeit in a very different context than usual2.