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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 5, 2008

Seminar Series Looks to 'Dispose' of Pharmaceutical Contamination

Pharmaceutical disposal will be the focus of the latest installment in the seminar series “Go with the Flow-- Get to Know Our Indiana Coastal Resources on Wednesday, September 10 at 6:30 p.m. at Purdue University Calumet.

In his seminar entitled, “Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products: The Impact on our Water Systems,” Todd Nettesheim, of the U.S. EPA Great Lakes National Program Office, will discuss the impacts of pharmaceuticals and personal care products that end up in local waterways. Often this is result of improper disposal, such as flushing these products down the drain.

An emerging issue, pharmaceuticals have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, according to an investigation by the Associated Press. Other studies have found impacts on aquatic wildlife.

The Go with the Flow seminar series is intended raise awareness of land use practices on Lake Michigan’s coastal resources in Indiana. The final seminar in the series is titled “The 21st-Century Battle between Precipitation and Evaporation in the Great Lakes Water Cycle” and will be held on October 8.

The series is being funded through a grant Purdue Calumet received from the Lake Michigan Coastal Program. Other sponsors are Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.

The seminar series will take place at the Calumet Conference Center. For directions, go to www.calumet.purdue.edu/thecenter. For any additional information, contact Leslie Dorworth, Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant aquatic ecology specialist, at 219-989-2726 or dorworth@calumet.purdue.edu.

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The Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant College Program is one of more than 30 National Sea Grant College Programs. Created by Congress in 1966, Sea Grant combines university, government, business and industry expertise to address coastal and Great Lakes needs. Funding is provided by the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U. S. Department of Commerce, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Purdue University at West Lafayette, Indiana.