IMAGE COURTESY OF P2D2

Pill Bottle Pete is the mascot of the P2D2 program, based in Pontiac, Ill. The program is geared toward educating people about the dangers of medications in drinking water. One of the program’s developers, Paul Ritter, is visiting Fife to discuss the problem and possible local solutions.

Council member tackles tainted drinking water

By Meghan Erkkinen

Before you pour yourself another glass of tap water, sip on this: according to an Associated Press report in March of this year, a multitude of pharmaceuticals have been found in the drinking water of at least 41 million Americans.

The report found that Americans across the country are sipping everything from acetaminophen and ibuprofen to antibiotics, mood stabilizers

and sex hormones.

Sure, the drugs are present in miniscule qualities, but this information has still led many to question the safety of the water we drink.

Fife City Councilmember Glenn Hull is among those questioning the effect of these drugs not only on us, but also on the environment.

A friend and pharmacist in Illinois told Hull about a local program called P2D2, started by a science teacher in Pontiac, Ill., to properly dispose of prescription and over-the-counter medications.

The teacher, Paul Ritter, began the program after his wife asked him a simple question one night last December – what should she do with some leftover prescription drugs?

“At the time the practice was to throw away drugs or flush them down the toilet,” Ritter said.

He decided to charge his students with the task of researching the issue, and the students yielded some disturbing results – that these prescription drugs that are so easily discarded often find their way back to us through our drinking water.

As word of their research grew, more and more students and classes became involved, along with Ritter’s fellow teacher, Eric Bohm, and others, in trying to find a solution to the problem. Ritter estimates about 600 students at his school have worked to address the issue, whether by lobbying and informing the government and media or making posters and writing a theme song.

Then the students decided to pull together people representing local groups – pharmacists, local government officials, police and others – to address the issue. They developed a system in which pharmacies would take back over-the-counter and non-narcotic drugs, and the police department would take back narcotic drugs, and the medications would be disposed of safely and properly.

“The program’s an ability for everyone in the community to make a difference in their own world by utilizing the ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure method,” Ritter said. “In a matter of five and half months we’ve expanded from four pharmacies to 28. We’re in four counties in the state of Illinois. We have towns anywhere from the size of 10,000 to 120,000.”

The idea is spreading like wildfire through Illinois, and Ritter has been contacted by neighboring states about the possibility of implementing a similar program. Now, Ritter and the students are asking themselves: where do they go from here?

“We go to Fife, Washington, that’s where we go,” Ritter said. “We cannot be more excited about the possibility of bring P2D2 to Fife. We want people to have our program and be able to utilize existing systems to help eliminate the possibility of pharmaceuticals entering our water supply.”

Ritter has been working with Hull and Fife City Manager Steve Worthington to arrange a local discussion about the issue and address possible solutions. Ritter will fly out July 3, and will host a presentation and roundtable discussion on the subject July 7.

Fife officials are working on drawing up an invitation list, which will include local pharmacists, water quality workers, educators, policy makers and police and other law enforcement officials. Hull hopes to have five or 10 people from each sector.

“I think his (Ritter’s) value to us is to learn from his failures and successes along the way,” Hull said. “If [Fife] can lead in some way to get this issue on the table, I guess that’s the challenge we have facing us.”

Hull hopes to get the school district involved in the issue to try to educate citizens more about the issue and to encourage action. Neither Hull nor Ritter knows what specifically will come from the discussion, but both hope it leads to more discussion and hopefully, in the future, action.

“I think we can make a difference somehow, some way,” Hull said. “My goal is to get the conversation started.”

Story Tools