Chemotherapy is cancer treatment using medications, including cytotoxic drugs, containing chemicals that prevent cells from reproducing or growing. Chemotherapy accounts for the survival of many cancer victims.
A well known side effect of chemo drugs is that they cannot tell the difference between cancer cells and other fast-growing cells in our bodies. Chemo drugs attack the cells in hair follicles, causing hair loss, and the cells lining our digestive tract, causing nausea.
Something you might not realize is that chemotherapy drugs have a long half-life, which is the time it takes for chemicals to lose half of their power. This means that as a cancer patient sheds the still-powerful medicine via their digestive system, toxic chemicals enter the sewage system.
For rural residents with their own septic system, chemotherapy drugs can be problematic. A septic system uses bacteria to break down household sewage. High concentrations of antibiotics, poisons or chemo drugs can kill or prevent the growth of the helpful anaerobic bacteria needed for the normal function of a septic system.
The Dallas County Environmental Health Services advises residents with private septic systems to have their tank pumped out after finishing a course of chemotherapy. For more information call 515-993-3750.
Ann Cochran is the health navigation coordinator in the Dallas County Public Health Department.
I have septic tank. You usually wait and have it pumped when it is needed, not prior. I’d suggest one just wait for the need to arise. If those drugs do kill the bacteria to the point where it fills up, then pump it out at that time and not months earlier as the authors suggests. Or flush a few bottles of “helpful bacteria” down the toilet to replenish the bacteria. That’s a common activity that might overcome those drugs (or not), but it sure is cheaper than a pumping as a preventative measure prior to it being filled.