Water: Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products
Science & TechnologySurface Water Standards & GuidancePharmaceuticals and Personal Care ProductsWorkshop on Approaches to Screening for Risk from Pharmaceuticals in Drinking WaterWorkshop on Approaches to Screening for Risk from Pharmaceuticals in Drinking Water
Upcoming Workshop
Characterizing the Potential Human Toxicity to Low Doses of Pharmaceuticals in Drinking Water: Are New Risk Assessment Methods or Approaches Required?
December 11–12, 2008
Register (free)
Pharmaceuticals have been increasingly detected at very low levels in U.S. drinking water. At this time EPA does not know whether there is a human health risk associated with these reported levels. To better understand and evaluate the potential risks to humans of such concentrations in drinking water, EPA is commissioning the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to convene a panel of experts to provide their ideas and opinions on this subject.
A number of approaches have been proposed for estimating the human health hazard posed by very low concentrations of pharmaceuticals in drinking water. At the workshop, EPA and others will present these approaches, including EPA’s proposed approach which is under development, to the NRC panel. The panel members will examine and discuss them, as well as consider data availability and the likelihood of success of proposed decision-making approaches for prioritizing individual pharmaceuticals for further evaluation. The panel members will provide opinions and ideas to EPA, which EPA will consider in evaluating individual chemicals.