Pharmaceuticals in the Environment

Abstract

Pharmaceuticals gather more than 1000 biologically active molecules used in human and veterinary medicine around the world. The increase in drugs consumption and the development of improved analytical environmental techniques have resulted in identifying these emerging pollutants in all aquatic compartments, ranging from surface water and groundwater ressources to the marine environment.Numerous investigations have indicated that a hundred of pharmaceuticals and their metabolites are frequently detected in the aquatic environment, at international level, at concentrations ranging from ng/l to µg/l. The concentrations even surpass the mg/l level in sewage treatment effluents. Once there, they may be responsible for chronic poisoning of aquatic species due to their still effective biological activity. The European authorities have considered this hazard for years, leading to investigations only for new pharmaceuticals entering the market and when the predicted exposure concentration is greater than 100 ng/l.

Biodegradation of Erythromycin with Environmental Microorganism Pseudomonas aeruginosa 3011

“…7 Antibiotics, among all pharmaceuticals, are extensively used in treatment of diseases, and as such, their antimicrobial residues can have potentially adverse effects on humans. 8 In the last decades, antibiotic compounds have been considered as ''emerging contaminants'' due to their relatively high consumption and pseudo-persistence in the environment. 6,9 Conventional wastewater treatment approaches are usually ineffective at degrading pharmaceutical contaminants like antibiotics, because most such contaminants show poor solubility in water.…”