The Impact of Pharmaceuticals Released to the Environment
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Pharmaceuticals in the Environment Shown to Negatively Affect Ecosystems
Summaries of Research
Research shows that pharmaceuticals entering the environment through flushing or other means negatively affect aquatic ecosystems, including and fish and animal populations. Read some brief excerpts on the subject:
- According to the U.S. Geological Survey, “the primary concern, has got to be for aquatic wildlife like fish. Because many of these compounds are obviously produced for function in human beings, the presence of these compounds in rivers, in streams or even worse in drinking water supplies is obviously a matter of deep concern for a lot of people. But it's important to remember people don't actually live in rivers or streams…On the other hand, fish and other aquatic wildlife do live in rivers, and they're much more vulnerable to certain types of emerging contaminants.”
- According to the European Commission, pharmaceuticals “have been shown to pose a risk to fish or other wildlife, for example, by affecting their ability to reproduce, altering their behaviour in ways jeopardising their survival, or through direct toxic effects.” They may also “contribute to the serious problem of antimicrobial resistance.”
- According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, “the vast majority of pharmaceuticals have not yet been evaluated for their long-term toxicity, occurrence or fate in the environment. Nevertheless, certain pharmaceuticals have been proven to cause undesired adverse effects on ecosystems, including mortality and changes to physiology, behaviour or reproduction.”
Scientific Evidence
This section highlights a few conclusions from scientific studies showing that some common active pharmaceutical ingredients cause detrimental effects to ecosystems.
- Aquatic ecosystems and organisms are particularly vulnerable. Continuous input of APIs into rivers and streams through wastewater treatment systems adversely affects the aquatic ecosystems of water bodies due to the intrinsic bioactivity (having an effect on a living organism) of these compounds.
- Aquatic pollution is particularly troublesome because aquatic organisms live in the contaminated water and are exposed continuously throughout their lifecycle.
- Some contaminants are problematic because they are persistent (meaning they stay in place for a long time), or they are so common that they are ever-present even though their residence times are low (Daughton, 1999).
- Common drugs like non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (e.g., ibuprofen, aspirin, naproxen) negatively impact the organ functions of aquatic organisms and cause cytotoxic and genotoxic damage, high oxidative cell stress, and detrimental effects on growth, reproduction, and behavior (Oaks, 2004).
- Endocrine disrupting chemicals damage reproductive physiology resulting in low reproductive rates (Jobling 2004), and in some cases, cause male fish to develop female characteristics (Kidd, 2007).
- Antibiotics are another frequently-prescribed class of API that negatively impact ecosystems. Antibiotics are designed to kill living organisms, and they are likewise poisonous to aquatic plants (Brain, 2004).
Pharmaceuticals in the Environment May Negatively Affect Human Health
Summaries of Research
Researchers continue to examine human health effects of pharmaceuticals in the environment. The important features and risks of the problem are evident:
- Pharmaceuticals are intrinsically bioactive compounds, meaning they are designed to act on living systems (Ginebreda, 2009).
- Pharmaceutical use and its subsequent input into the environment continue to increase worldwide. (Ginebreda, 2009).
- Exposure is not to a single pharmaceutical, but to many pharmaceuticals, with unintended, interactive, and often unknown effects (Ginebreda, 2009).
- Some pharmaceuticals bioaccumulate in humans, which could decrease fertility and cause breast and testosterone cancers (Tijani, 2013).
- Some pharmaceuticals in the environment increase the presence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates (pdf) that, annually, at least two million illnesses and 23,000 deaths in the U.S. are caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria.