2026· International Journal of Environment and Health Sciences· 0 citations· 20 references
TL;DR
This study reviews the sources, fate, and impacts of pharmaceutical contaminants, emphasizing both conventional and modern drugs, including expired medications, and highlights the challenges associated with inadequate regulatory frameworks, limited public awareness, and inefficiencies in existing treatment technologies.
Abstract
Pharmaceutical pollutants have emerged as a critical environmental and public health concern due to their continuous release into ecosystems through manufacturing effluents, improper disposal of expired drugs, hospital waste, and incomplete removal during wastewater treatment. These drug residues persist in water, soil, and biota, causing ecological imbalance, development of antimicrobial resistance, endocrine disruption, and potential long-term toxicity in humans. The life-cycle of pharmaceuticals, from production and consumption to disposal, plays a significant role in determining their environmental footprint. This study reviews the sources, fate, and impacts of pharmaceutical contaminants, emphasizing both conventional and modern drugs, including expired medications. It highlights the challenges associated with inadequate regulatory frameworks, limited public awareness, and inefficiencies in existing treatment technologies. Furthermore, the manuscript discusses the toxicological effects of drug pollutants on aquatic organisms and humans, stressing the need for integrated waste management and green pharmaceutical practices. Emphasis is placed on safety precautions such as proper drug disposal programs, advanced wastewater treatment methods, eco-pharmacovigilance, and the development of environmentally benign drugs. The study underscores the importance of sustainable strategies to minimize pharmaceutical pollution and protect ecosystem integrity and human health. Overall, this work contributes to a better understanding of pharmaceutical life-cycle impacts and provides a foundation for policy formulation and future research aimed at achieving environmental sustainability in healthcare systems.
The improper disposal of expired and unused pharmaceutical products has become something
of great public health and environmental concern worldwide. This study examines the
pathways through which pharmaceuticals enter the environment, including household waste,
sewage systems, and landfill leachates, and assess their effects on human health and ecological
systems. Pharmaceuticals such as antibiotics, hormones, analgesics and cytotoxic drugs are
continually found in soil and water bodies as a result of inadequate waste management
practices and limited wastewater treatment capabilities.
The presence of these compounds in the environment has been linked to adverse effects, which
includes the development of antimicrobial resistance, endocrine disruption in aquatic
organisms, bioaccumulation in food chains, and potential toxicity to humans through
contaminated water and food sources. In humans, chronic exposure—even at low
concentrations—may contribute to allergic reactions, drug resistance, and long-term health
complications.
This paper also explores the socioeconomic implications, the current disposal practices,
identifies gaps in regulatory frameworks, and highlights the lack of public awareness as a key
contributing factor. Strategies such as pharmaceutical take-back programs, public education,
stricter regulations, and the development of eco-friendly drug formulations are discussed as
viable interventions.
The study concludes that a multidisciplinary approach involving policymakers, healthcare
professionals, pharmaceutical industries, and the public is essential to alleviate the risks
associated with pharmaceutical waste. Improved disposal systems and increased awareness
are critical steps toward safeguarding both human health and environmental sustainability.
Yinka Akinade· International Journal of Hea...· 0 citations
Pharmaceutical pollution of freshwater ecosystems is an emerging environmental and public-health issue in India. The high drug consumption in the country, along with the presence of concentrated manufacturing hubs, inadequate wastewater treatment, and weak monitoring systems, is leading to rising pollutant release. This review summarizes the existing evidence on pharmaceutical contaminants in Indian freshwaters with the focus on classes of pollutants, sources of contamination, environmental fate, toxicological pathways, ecological risks and remediation strategies. Antibiotics, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, stimulants and anticonvulsants are identified in the review as priority contaminant groups owing to their frequent detection, high use volume, environmental persistence and ecotoxicological relevance. These residues can enter freshwater systems through discharges from pharmaceutical manufacturing, hospital effluents, domestic wastewater, livestock runoff and agricultural pathways. Their persistence is due to their physicochemical properties, adsorption to sediment, incomplete biodegradation and limited removal in conventional wastewater treatment plants. Toxicological evidence points to risks of selection for antibiotic resistance, endocrine disruption, neurotoxicity, oxidative stress, reproductive impairment, genotoxicity and bioaccumulation in aquatic food webs. The review also covers microbial degradation, phytoremediation, constructed wetlands and advanced oxidation processes as remediation options and points out that the choice of technology should be context specific for industrial, municipal and natural water systems. This review offers a novel India-centric synthesis that links pharmaceutical production, consumption, environmental occurrence, ecological effects and remediation feasibility into an integrated framework for monitoring, policy reform and future research.
Vineet Kumar Poddar, A. Kumar, Ayan Srivastava et al.· Environmental Toxicology· 0 citations
Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) have emerged as contaminants of increasing environmental concern due to their continuous release, widespread occurrence, and persistence in aquatic ecosystems. Although numerous studies have investigated their occurrence, transformation, and removal, a comprehensive synthesis linking their environmental fate, associated risks, and remediation strategies remains limited. This review addresses this knowledge gap by integrating current understanding of PPCP sources, transport pathways, transformation processes, ecological and human health impacts, and emerging treatment technologies. PPCPs enter surface water, groundwater, and drinking water primarily through domestic, hospital, and industrial effluents, while the limited removal efficiency of conventional wastewater treatment plants facilitates their environmental persistence. Following their release, PPCPs undergo sorption, photodegradation, and microbial transformation, producing metabolites that may exhibit equal or greater toxicity than their parent compounds. Their occurrence has been associated with endocrine disruption, antimicrobial resistance, and chronic toxicity in aquatic organisms, highlighting the need for effective mitigation strategies. Current remediation approaches, including advanced oxidation processes, membrane filtration, adsorption, and biological treatments, offer significant potential but remain constrained by cost, scalability, and operational limitations. Overall, this review concludes that sustainable management of PPCPs requires an integrated framework combining advanced treatment technologies, comprehensive environmental monitoring, standardized risk assessment, and strengthened regulatory policies to minimize their long-term impacts on aquatic ecosystems and human health.
A. Bhat, A. Chaudhary, Mohamed A. M. Ali et al.· Marine Pollution Bulletin· 0 citations
Introduction.
The pharmaceutical industry, while ensuring public health, simultaneously creates significant environmental risks. The article discusses modern approaches to assessing the impact of drugs on the environment in various regulatory systems. This impact is manifested through emissions of pollutants into the air, wastewater discharge, solid waste generation and consumption of significant volumes of natural resources as raw materials for chemical and biological substances. In addition, drugs and their metabolites enter the environment after use by patients. The problem of safe collection and disposal of drugs in civil circulation is also relevant. The complex of environmental problems associated with drugs is the focus of international organizations such as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) or the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Expert groups within their framework assess the situation with environmental pollution by drugs as threatening. The problem of drug pollution requires the use of an approach covering the entire life cycle of drugs – from development and registration to consumption and disposal. The focus should be on pollution prevention measures: developing "green" drugs, limiting the use of substances with high environmental risks, creating drug disposal programs, upgrading treatment facilities, and educational campaigns.
Text.
The objective of this review is to conduct a comparative analysis of environmental risk assessment methods used in the European Union (EU), the United States, and Russia. The EU uses a two-stage assessment system (primary screening and detailed analysis) regulated by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) applies a categorical exclusion mechanism, which makes the system more flexible. The current environmental legislation in Russia regulates waste management and sets standards for the impact on the environment, while there is no comprehensive risk assessment of the life cycle of drugs.
Conclusion.
The use of international experience, including the phased implementation of regulatory requirements for the assessment of environmental risks of drugs, can contribute to the development of a more sustainable pharmaceutical industry in Russia.
A. V. Golovin, N. V. Pyatigorskaya, S. А. Loseva et al.· Drug development & regis...· 0 citations
Emerging contaminants (ECs) comprise a diverse group of synthetic and naturally occurring chemicals that are not routinely monitored but are increasingly recognized for their potential risks to ecosystems and human health. Many ECs, such as pharmaceuticals, personal care products, endocrine-disrupting compounds, pesticides, nanomaterials, and industrial chemicals, are biologically active, environmentally persistent, and mobile, enabling them to exert toxicological effects even at ultra-trace concentrations. Their widespread occurrence in freshwater, marine environments, and drinking water sources reflects the limitations of conventional treatment systems and underscores the urgency of improved regulatory oversight. ECs enter the environment through multiple pathways, including wastewater effluent, agricultural runoff, urban stormwater, and improper disposal, subsequently dispersing across environmental compartments where they may bioaccumulate and disrupt biological processes. Evidence links EC exposure to endocrine disruption, developmental toxicity, antimicrobial resistance, and compromised ecological integrity, yet many remain undetected under existing monitoring frameworks. These challenges highlight the need for advanced analytical methods, standardized detection protocols, and robust risk assessment approaches to support effective governance. This review evaluates the global regulatory landscape for ECs, tracing policy developments from the 1970s to 2025 across major jurisdictions. By comparing regulatory approaches, action levels, and institutional responses, the paper identifies critical gaps, including inconsistent definitions, absence of enforceable thresholds, limited monitoring coverage, and slow adaptation of legacy water quality standards. The review emphasizes the growing relevance of group-based regulation, precautionary and adaptive management, and harmonized international monitoring frameworks. Collectively, this analysis provides an integrated perspective on how science, policy, and governance must evolve to address the complex, cross-border challenges posed by ECs.
A. Ismanto, Tony Hadibarata, Lilik Maslukah et al.· Environmental Sustainability· 0 citations
The synthesis indicates that no single biological technology provides universal control and risk reduction is more defensibly pursued through source control, robust biological treatment and targeted polishing, supported by mass balances, transformation-product screening, effect-based endpoints and antimicrobial-resistance assessment.
Yogita Basene, Shreeti Shrivastawa· Asian Journal of Environment...· 0 citations
We use cookies to run the site and, with your consent, for analytics and to show ads.
See our Cookie Policy.
