Fate of Pharmaceutical Drugs and Metabolites in the Environment
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Date
2021-03-09
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Publisher
Springer, Cham. Print
Abstract
In recent years, there have been global concerns about the emerging levels of
abused drugs (cocaine, opioid, cannabinoid, amphetamine, lysergic diethylamide
and hallucinogen) apart from pharmaceuticals, dyes, solvents, pesticides, heavy
metals and chemicals from industrial wastes and direct dumping of other contaminants
to the aquatic environment. The escalating levels of these pollutants have
prompted the need for proper monitoring of their prevalence in order to stem its social and environmental impacts. New drugs are daily being introduced as the
number of patents keeps increasing, and the pharmaceutical products for numerous
therapeutic and commercial purposes keep escalating accordingly, reaching already
the increasingly polluted environment. The inadvertent and purposeful discharges of
pharmacologically active compounds via excreta remain underappreciated, yet their
toxicological potency on the ecosystem has become a global issue. Environmental
monitoring and risk assessments have shown the sewage treatment works as one of
the potential routes through which the levels of consumption by a local population
can be estimated. The exposure data of trends in their distribution, biodegradability,
fate, toxicity and environmental assessment can safeguard aquatic and human
environment by letting the appropriate authorities involved in fighting and controlling
drug menace develop the desired approaches in controlling and effective
monitoring of emerging pollution challenges.