Environmental persistent pharmaceutical pollutant
The occurring problems from EPPPs are in parallel explained under environmental impact of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCP).
The European Union summarizes pharmaceutical residues with the potential of contamination of water and soil together with other micropollutants under "priority substances".
With the exception of watercourses downstream of sewage treatment plants, the concentration of pharmaceuticals in surface and ground water is generally low.
Concentrations in sewage sludge and in landfill leachate may be substantially higher[3] and provide alternative routes for EPPPs to enter the human and animal food-chain.
Active residues of pharmaceuticals have been detected in surface water, and they may persist in the environment for long periods of time.
[medical citation needed] Half-life in nature varies depends on the environment (air, water, soil, sludge), but is more than one year for several compounds.
Partly they are excluded in laws and regulations which control manufacture, marketing, use, and disposal of other consumer products of a chemical character (solvents, paints, glues etc.).
In evaluating and controlling the risk to, or via, the aquatic environment from medicinal products, adequate attention should be paid to Union environmental objectives.
A preparatory"study on the environmental risks of medicinal products" was commissioned by the Executive Agency for Health and Consumers and published in December 2013.
This "BIO IS study" discusses a wide range of legislative and non-legislative "factors of influence" and related possible solutions.
In the framework of that strategic approach, the Commission shall, where appropriate, by 14 September 2017 propose measures to be taken at Union and / or Member State level, as appropriate, to address the possible environmental impacts of pharmaceutical substances [...] with a view to reducing discharges, emissions and losses of such substances into the aquatic environment, taking into account public health needs and the cost effectiveness of the measures proposed.
An EU directive for human pharmaceuticals explicitly requires that all member states should establish collection systems for unused or expired medicines.
[34] Concentrations in surface water alone are not sufficient to assess the risk of negative environmental effects in the aquatic environment.
It has also been demonstrated that fish exposed to sewage treatment plant (STP) effluent can take up and concentrate estrogenic compounds, including ethinylestradiol, to very high internal levels.
The non-selective beta-blocking agent propranolol was found to cause a significant decrease in egg production in medaka fish, at a concentration close to that demonstrated in the sewage treatment plants (STP) effluents.
[35][dubious – discuss] Citalopram has been detected in liver from wild perch in low μg per kg levels, and fluoxetine affects the serotonin system in the same way that it does in humans.
Fluoxetine has also been shown to affect swimming activity in shellfish; whether this is linked to a disturbance of serotonin function in the brain is still unknown.
High levels of antibiotics in the water are a cause for alarm as there is an increased risk of selecting resistant bacteria, an issue of global concern.
[citation needed] There are currently no test methods to assess whether negative effects may occur after long-term environmental diffuse exposure in humans, during the vulnerable periods of development, on aquatic micro-organism or how it may affect other animals.
Consideration must be taken to bio-accumulation in fish and other aquatic food used by humans, as well as to additive and synergetic effects between pharmaceutical and other chemicals in the contaminated water.
