4-Epitetracycline

4-Epitetracycline is a breakdown product of the pharmaceutical Tetracycline.

As a Pollutant
Because humans and animals often do not fully metabolize pharmaceuticals in their body, they can excrete drugs or their breakdown products, which may the enter the environment.

In Sewage Sludge
4-Epitetracycline has been found in sewage sludge. In the Targeted National Sewage Sludge Survey, a 2009 test of 84 samples of sewage sludge from around the U.S., the EPA found 4-Epitetracycline in 80 samples (95%) in concentrations ranging from 47.2 to 4,380 parts per billion. There are no federal regulations governing how much of this drug may be present in sewage sludge applied to land as fertilizer.

Related SourceWatch articles

 * Biosolids
 * Sewage sludge
 * Food Rights Network
 * Tetracycline