NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Antidepressants, anticonvulsants, anticancer agents and antimicrobials are the classes of drugs most likely to be found at "toxicologically significant" levels in the environment, according to researchers from Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Padma Venkatraman presented her team's work Wednesday evening at the 223rd national meeting of the American Chemical Society in Orlando, Florida.

"We went into the literature and tried to make an intelligent guess based on usage and metabolism on what may actually be in the environment at levels that we can actually measure using analytic methods," she said in a telephone interview with Reuters Health. Still-active residues of these drugs may be excreted, she noted, and expired drugs are often flushed down the toilet and end up in sewage.

"In general, what we expect to find are trace levels of these pharmaceuticals," Venkatraman said. Although reluctant to give specific numbers, she said the levels "range from nanograms per liter up to micrograms per liter."

Venkatraman emphasized to Reuters Health that "at this point we have no evidence at all to indicate that the levels are harmful to humans." The primary concern now is prolonged exposure for aquatic life over generations. "There are a lot of subtle effects these pharmaceuticals can have because they are meant to be bioactive," Venkatraman explained.

"Now that we've identified the classes of chemicals that may be important, hopefully toxicologists can pick up from our research and go out to see what sorts of effects they may have," she added.

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