Are there some drugs or medications that are safe to dispose-of by flushing them down the toilet or pouring them down a sink and into a private septic system?

What unwanted or old drugs may damage the septic tank or leach fields?

This document explains how to extend the life of the septic system by being careful about what goes into it.

Pouring Drugs into the Toilet, Sink, or Septic System?

Drugs, prescription or prescription medicines, should never be flushed down a toilet unless your pharmacist or the drug manufacturer tells you specifically that the particular drug is absolutely harmless to the environment.

While this is not a new topic, as recently as April 2007 the New York Times reported the growing detection of pharmaceuticals such as birth control pills, anti-depressants, painkillers, shampoos, and other compounds in rivers, lakes, streams, and ground water, including possibly drinking water.

The Times article described "pharmaceutical and personal care products" or "P.P.C.P.'s which are being flushed down drains and which pass through sewage treatment systems and private residential septic systems into the aquifer.

Beyond a possible hazard of inadvertent consumption of antibiotics (and growing development of bacteria resistant to our antibiotics), it is possible that very low levels of other compounds will have a drastic affect on some animals, possibly going un-detected until that population declines beyond its ability to recover.

Reader Question: ok to put chemotherapy drugs into the septic tank?

23 Janyart 2915 David said:

I have a friend who lives on a rural property, serviced by well & septic. He is receiving chemotherapy for prostate cancer. It was his oncologist( who also lives on a property with well & septic) that suggested he rent a Portopottie to use while he was being treated. Doc said my friend's human waste could contain enough residual of the chemo to upset or kill off the bacteria in the septic system.

Doc also said the same thing could be true of people on extended course of certain strong antibiotics.
It makes sense, but has anyone else ever heard of it before?Does Doc know septics or should he stick to medicine?

Reply:

David in addition to the comments above, we discuss flushing drugs, particularly antibiotics, into septic systems at

CHEMICALS to KEEP OUT OF SEPTICS

Also see ENDOCRINE DISRUPTERS at BUILDINGS

And in the research below be sure to see Johnson (2008), "Do cytotoxic chemotherapy drugs discharged into rivers pose a risk to the environment and human health? An overview and UK case study."

However I'm not sure that a single individual's drugs are enough to kill off septic tank bacteria and I've not found any authoritative research that supports the argument for individuals. Where such problems were reported they involved multi-occupant nursing homes and hospitals.

Impact of Antibiotics & Other Drugs on Residential Septic Systems

Question: septic pumper company says taking medications can kill off good septic tank bacteria - is that true?

11/6/2015 Larry said:

Our septic has had to be pumped every 6 months recently, We don't put anything down we shouldn't. The company that pumped said that taking medication could kill off the good bacteria in the tank. Is that true? My wife and I are both taking medication. Could this cause a problem?

This question was posted originally

at SEPTIC TREATMENTS & CHEMICALS

Reply:

Having to pump a septic tank every 6 months does not fix an underlying problem of an under-sized or poorly designed system or more likely a failed drainfield; it doesn't make sense to me unless you're using your system with a failed drainfield and treating it as a semi-holding tank; a septic tank at a typical home is re-filled in a few days after pumping; faster if groundwater is leaking into the tank; so it's not right that the septic tank should be kept below its normally-full level.

Taking some meds, particularly antibiotics and some nuclear medicines can send meds into the septic tank; from what I've researched the risk of harm to the septic tank has been confirmed for nursing homes and hospitals using onsite wastewater treatment systems. I'd be a surprise if the level of antibiotics from 2 adults,diluted by other normal wastewater usage, would be a problem.

Searching InspectApedia for "antibiotics in the septic system" finds two articles, the key one DRUGS INTO the SEPTIC TANK? (this article) and also CHEMICALS to KEEP OUT OF SEPTICS where we indicate that normal household use of antibiotics should not be an issue at a private septic system.

Below I cite confirming research; you'll see that the titles or abstracts of these articles generally point to large volume operations such as hospitals and nursing homes or community wastewater streams.

Question: effects of chemotherapy chemicals on the septic drainfield

(Aug 28, 2014) Karen said:
Can the urine from a radiation treatment patient flushed into septic tank cause grass in drain field to turn brown?

This question was asked originally at CHEMICALS to KEEP OUT OF SEPTICS

Reply:

Karen,

Urine, even containing drugs or radioactive medications, from an individual, drained into a private septic system would be too small a quantity to produce high concentrations of anything that would be likely to explain grass dying over a drainfield.

I agree that if stuff flushed down drains makes it into the septic tank and IF the septic tank baffles are intact, the items may remain in the tank. But there's a good chance of clog-ups right at the tank inlet baffle - worth inspecting there.

Research on pharmaceuticals and other drugs on wastewater and on septic systems

• Aleem, Asma, Jasmine Isar, and Abdul Malik. "Impact of long-term application of industrial wastewater on the emergence of resistance traits in< i> Azotobacter chroococcum</i> isolated from rhizospheric soil." Bioresource Technology 86, no. 1 (2003): 7-13.
• Basheer, Chanbasha, Han Guang Chong, Toh Ming Hii, and Hian Kee Lee. "Application of porous membrane-protected micro-solid-phase extraction combined with HPLC for the analysis of acidic drugs in wastewater." Analytical chemistry 79, no. 17 (2007): 6845-6850.
• Berto, Josiani, Gisele Canan Rochenbach, Marco Antonio B. Barreiros, Albertina XR Corrêa, Sandra Peluso-Silva, and Claudemir Marcos Radetski. "Physico-chemical, microbiological and ecotoxicological evaluation of a septic tank/Fenton reaction combination for the treatment of hospital wastewaters." Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety 72, no. 4 (2009): 1076-1081.
• Buerge, Ignaz J., Hans-Rudolf Buser, Thomas Poiger, and Markus D. Müller. "Occurrence and fate of the cytostatic drugs cyclophosphamide and ifosfamide in wastewater and surface waters." Environmental science & technology 40, no. 23 (2006): 7242-7250.
• Carrara, Cherilyn, Carol J. Ptacek, William D. Robertson, David W. Blowes, Michael C. Moncur, Ed Sverko, and Sean Backus. "Fate of pharmaceutical and trace organic compounds in three septic system plumes, Ontario, Canada." Environmental science & technology 42, no. 8 (2008): 2805-2811. - Abstract:
  Three high volume septic systems in Ontario, Canada, were examined to assess the potential for onsite wastewater treatment systems to release pharmaceutical compounds to the environment and to evaluate the mobility of these compounds in receiving aquifers. Wastewater samples were collected from the septic tanks, and groundwater samples were collected below and down gradient of the infiltration beds and analyzed for a suite of commonly used pharmaceutical and trace organic compounds. The septic tank samples contained elevated concentrations of several pharmaceutical compounds. Ten of the 12 compounds analyzed were detected in groundwater at one or more sites at concentrations in the low ng L−1 to low µg L−1 range. Large differences among the sites were observed in both the number of detections and the concentrations of the pharmaceutical compounds. Of the compounds analyzed, ibuprofen, gemfibrozil, and naproxen were observed to be transported at the highest concentrations and greatest distances from the infiltration source areas, particularly in anoxic zones of the plumes.
• Delgado, Luis F., Sylvie Schetrite, Carlos Gonzalez, and Claire Albasi. "Effect of cytostatic drugs on microbial behaviour in membrane bioreactor system." Bioresource technology 101, no. 2 (2010): 527-536.
• Farré, Marinel, Imma Ferrer, Antoni Ginebreda, Mercè Figueras, Lourdes Olivella, Lluis Tirapu, Manel Vilanova, and Damià Barceló. "Determination of drugs in surface water and wastewater samples by liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry: methods and preliminary results including toxicity studies with< i> Vibrio fischeri</i>." Journal of Chromatography A 938, no. 1 (2001): 187-197.
• Gautam, Ajay Kumar, Sunil Kumar, and P. C. Sabumon. "Preliminary study of physico-chemical treatment options for hospital wastewater." Journal of environmental management 83, no. 3 (2007): 298-306.
• García-Galán, M. Jesús, M. Silvia Díaz-Cruz, and Damià Barceló. "Occurrence of sulfonamide residues along the Ebro river basin: removal in wastewater treatment plants and environmental impact assessment." Environment international 37, no. 2 (2011): 462-473.
• Kasprzyk-Hordern, Barbara, and David R. Baker. "Enantiomeric profiling of chiral drugs in wastewater and receiving waters." Environmental science & technology 46, no. 3 (2012): 1681-1691.
• Kasprzyk-Hordern, Barbara, Richard M. Dinsdale, and Alan J. Guwy. "The removal of pharmaceuticals, personal care products, endocrine disruptors and illicit drugs during wastewater treatment and its impact on the quality of receiving waters." Water research 43, no. 2 (2009): 363-380.
• Kümmerer, Klaus. "Drugs in the environment: emission of drugs, diagnostic aids and disinfectants into wastewater by hospitals in relation to other sources–a review." Chemosphere 45, no. 6 (2001): 957-969.
• Kümmerer, Klaus. "Significance of antibiotics in the environment." Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy 52, no. 1 (2003): 5-7.
• Johnson, Andrew C., Monika D. Jürgens, Richard J. Williams, Klaus Kümmerer, Andreas Kortenkamp, and John P. Sumpter. "Do cytotoxic chemotherapy drugs discharged into rivers pose a risk to the environment and human health? An overview and UK case study." Journal of Hydrology 348, no. 1 (2008): 167-175.
• Kümmerer, Klaus. "Antibiotics in the aquatic environment–a review–part II." Chemosphere 75, no. 4 (2009): 435-441.
• Ort, Christoph, Michael G. Lawrence, Jörg Rieckermann, and Adriano Joss. "Sampling for pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) and illicit drugs in wastewater systems: are your conclusions valid? A critical review." Environmental science & technology 44, no. 16 (2010): 6024-6035.
• Petrie, Bruce, Ewan J. McAdam, Mark D. Scrimshaw, John N. Lester, and Elise Cartmell. "Fate of drugs during wastewater treatment." TrAC Trends in Analytical Chemistry 49 (2013): 145-159.
• Prasse, Carsten, Michael P. Schlüsener, Ralf Schulz, and Thomas A. Ternes. "Antiviral drugs in wastewater and surface waters: a new pharmaceutical class of environmental relevance?." Environmental science & technology 44, no. 5 (2010): 1728-1735.
• Raloff, Janet. "Drugged waters." Science News 153, no. 12 (1998): 187-189.
• Robinson, Isabelle, Guillaume Junqua, Raymond Van Coillie, and Olivier Thomas. "Trends in the detection of pharmaceutical products, and their impact and mitigation in water and wastewater in North America." Analytical and bioanalytical chemistry 387, no. 4 (2007): 1143-1151.
• Samaras, Vasilios G., Nikolaos S. Thomaidis, Athanasios S. Stasinakis, Georgia Gatidou, and Themistokles D. Lekkas. "Determination of selected non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in wastewater by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry." International Journal of Environmental and Analytical Chemistry 90, no. 3-6 (2010): 219-229.
• Terzic, Senka, Ivan Senta, and Marijan Ahel. "Illicit drugs in wastewater of the city of Zagreb (Croatia)–Estimation of drug abuse in a transition country." Environmental pollution 158, no. 8 (2010): 2686-2693.
• Wick, Arne, Guido Fink, Adriano Joss, Hansruedi Siegrist, and Thomas A. Ternes. "Fate of beta blockers and psycho-active drugs in conventional wastewater treatment." Water research 43, no. 4 (2009): 1060-1074.
• Zhou, J. L., Z. L. Zhang, E. Banks, D. Grover, and J. Q. Jiang. "Pharmaceutical residues in wastewater treatment works effluents and their impact on receiving river water." Journal of Hazardous Materials 166, no. 2 (2009): 655-661.

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Reader Q&A - also see RECOMMENDED ARTICLES & FAQs

Question: home inspector asked to test apartment building for drugs

My client does building management in the Bronx and has a large apartment building with 82 units. He would like that I test several units for drugs particular marijuana and cocaine. I contacted EMSL lab they advised me to test via swab / surface samples.

I am trying to figure a course of action.

Appreciate your assistance. Thank you

Reply:

Forensic tests of a building indoors or outside for evidence of the use of or presence of drugs is not within the scope nor training of most home inspectors. In my OPINION

I would either not perform the drug test at all, or obtain from your client, an appropriate testing lab, or another source, a specific protocol including method and sample spots, then make clear to client that thus is not your expertise and that they sign off on the protocol.

Swab sampling using sterile swabs can test for a variety of substances in or around buildings, and I've used them myself, such as testing selected building surfaces after a sewage backup cleanup job.

But regarding the accuracy of swab testing, everything depends on exactly where you test.

Without a proper environmental test strategy, such drug tests may be unreliable and thus you could be held responsible for drawing a very incorrect conclusion about conditions at the property.

In my OPINION the use of a police-trained drug-sniffing dog would be enormously more effective that a few sporadic swab samples of building surfaces. A dog can cover wide building areas quickly and efficiently. - ( Ensminger 2011)

Research on Testing Buildings for Current or Recent Presence of Certain Drugs

• American Association for the Advancement of Science. "A Litmus Test for Cocaine." (2002): 899-901.

Illustration: Walmart's First Check home drug test. This is a urine test, not a test of building surface drug residues.

• Bitter, Julie L. The persistence of illicit drug smoke residues and their recovery from common household surfaces. [PDF] Drug testing and analysis 9, no. 4 (2017): 603-612.
  Abstract:
  
  Third‐hand smoke is the residue remaining on surfaces during smoking events. It is composed of particles and vapours that form upon heating. The phrase ‘third‐hand smoke’ is primarily used to describe nicotine and other chemicals from cigarettes, but any residues formed from the smoking of various substances could be classified similarly. There has been an increasing body of research on third‐hand smoke from cigarettes in the last decade, but little has been done in regards to understanding the persistence of particles and vapours from illicit drugs. In this work, small samples of cocaine and methamphetamine were volatilized to produce an illicit drug smoke that was collected onto various surface materials and left exposed to ambient conditions over 672 h (four weeks). Chemical analyses by electrospray ionization‐mass spectrometry of residues on silicon, plastic, laminate, and artificial leather surfaces indicated a rapid decrease in recovery of the parent molecule, with varied formation of decomposition products over the first 168 h of exposure. Measurable amounts of the parent molecule were still present after 672 h, exhibiting a strong persistence of these drugs on various household materials. This is important in a forensic science context, as third‐hand smoke residues could provide a viable source of trace evidence previously not utilized. Published 2016. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.
• Ensminger, John. Police and military dogs: Criminal detection, forensic evidence, and judicial admissibility. CRC Press, 2011.
  Excerpt:
  
  It is essential that those in the criminal justice system understand the tasks that police dogs perform and the evidence that their work produces.
  
  Police and Military Dogs: Criminal Detection, Forensic Evidence, and Judicial Admissibility examines the use of police and military dogs for a wide variety of functions and explores canine biology and behavior as it applies to police work. The book begins with an overview of the changes that have occurred in the field in the past four decades as discoveries have been made about canine ...
• Hinze, Jimme, Olbina Svetlana, CURRENT U.S. DRUG TESTING PRACTICES [PDF], M.E. Rinker Sr. School of Building Construction, U. Florida, retrieved 2019/07/22, original source: http://www.irbnet.de/daten/iconda/CIB20289.pdf
  
  Excerpt: The most common methods for drug testing in the workplace include analysis of urine, hair, and saliva (Moeller et al. 2008).
• Osterloh, John. "Testing for drugs of abuse." Clinical pharmacokinetics 24, no. 5 (1993): 355-361.
• Smith, Frederick P., and Kevin R. McGrath. "Cocaine surface contamination and the medico-legal implications of its transfer." Egyptian Journal of Forensic Sciences 1, no. 1 (2011): 1-4.
• U.S. Department of the Interior, Drug and Alcohol Testing Training Video [Video],(2019) USDI, Department of the Interior 1849 C Street, N.W. Washington DC 20240 USA, Tel: (202) 208-3100, Website: https://www.doi.gov/ibc/drug-and-alcohol-testing-training-video
  
  The IBC Drug and Alcohol Testing Branch has created this video to educate customers about federal drug test collections.
• Walmart, Drug Residue Surface Detection Test - illustrated above: First Check At Home Urine Drug Test, 4 drugs tested, 1.0 Checks for marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine and opiates

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Continue reading  at GARBAGE GRINDERS vs SEPTICS or select a topic from the closely-related articles below, or see the complete ARTICLE INDEX.

Or see these

Don't Flush Articles for Sewage Grinder Pumps, Toilets, Septic Systems, Drains

• TOILETS, DON'T FLUSH LIST - home
  • NEVER FLUSH INTO SEPTICS
  • BETTER NOT TO FLUSH
  • CHEMICALS & CLEANERS into the SEPTIC TANK?
  • CHEMICALS to KEEP OUT OF SEPTICS
  • CHLORINE IN DRINKING WATER
  • CHLORINE IN SEPTIC WASTEWATER
  • DISHWASHERS vs SEPTICS
  • DRUGS INTO the SEPTIC TANK?
  • GARBAGE GRINDERS vs SEPTICS
  • GARBAGE GRINDERS on SEPTIC or SEWER
  • REVERSE OSMOSIS CONCENTRATE DISPOSAL
  • RV HOLDING TANK DUMP INTO SEPTIC TANK?
  • SEPTIC TREATMENTS & CHEMICALS
  • SEWAGE PUMP DAMAGE & REPAIR
  • TOILET TISSUE CHOICES
  • WASHING MACHINES & SEPTIC SYSTEMS
  • WATER SOFTENER IMPACT on SEPTIC
  • * NO FLUSH SUMMARY LIST

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