Medicines and household chemicals pollute U.S. streams, study finds.

Publication: Chicago Tribune (via Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service)

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COPYRIGHT 2002 Chicago Tribune

Byline: Julie Deardorff

CHICAGO _ The nation's rivers and streams are awash in trace amounts of painkillers, antibiotics, caffeine, contraceptives, anti-depressants and other pharmaceuticals that have passed first through people and then through sewage plants, according to a pioneering study released Wednesday by the U.S. Geological Survey.

Chemicals in the murky Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal tested at Romeoville, Ill., include anti-diabetic drugs, antacids, cholesterol and hypertension medication. Two other urban waterways sampled, the Des Plaines River at Riverside and Salt Creek at Western Springs, Ill., contain antibiotics, caffeine, nicotine metabolites and triclosan, an ingredient in detergents, antibacterial soap, cosmetics and lotions.

The findings offer new evidence for an emerging science that is examining whether very small amounts of certain pollutants _ especially pharmaceuticals _ might have profound...

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