Last week, FDA announced that it had joined EPA and other federal agencies in Tox21, a program to improve, and greatly accelerate, chemical screening of toxicologically active chemicals. The program had been in place for two years, but FDA’s participation signals a new scope and new possibilities.
Last year, we blogged about reports of unusually high levels of APIs in the water supplies in and around Patancheru, a hotbed of drug manufacturing in India. (Here are several posts, including interviews with The Land Institute’s expert Stan Cox.)
Reading an article online today from the Boston Herald on how AstraZeneca is outfitting its new Waltham, Mass. R&D center with the latest and greatest green bells and whistles . . . it's good to see, but hardly surprising.
More evidence that the drug industry and EPA need to redefine acceptable emissions limits for APIs, collaborate on intelligent and cost effective detection and analytical methods and proactively address a controversial subject that will not go away.
At long last, four pharmaceutical facilities--two at AstraZeneca, and one each at Schering-Plough and Allergan--have earned EPA's much coveted Energy Star recognition.
Today, the terrifying image of Chernobyl was invoked to describe what could happen if the pharma industry fails to deal with the problem of active ingredients within the water supply (as seen and documented in Patancheru, India.)
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Since (as I mentioned) the "cure" for drugs in groundwater is not going to happen quickly, there is something we can do right now. There are, approximately, 20 million people without healthcare in the US of A at the moment.
There have been reports lately about prescription drugs being found in our drinking water. The levels are relatively low, so no flares were sent up by the EPA. It is somewhat like the lead in toys from China: probably been there for some time, just not looked for until now.
