Pollution of waters with products pharmacists. Strategies to cope the problem

Abstract

Human pharmaceuticals are consumed in high quantities world wide. In a sewage treatment plant (STP) many
pharmaceuticals compounds do not get removed to a sufficient degree and consequently they are present in the effluents of STPs,
in the surface waters and more rarely in drinking water. In this review diverse information was gathered on fate of pharmaceutical
compounds in the environment, their ecotoxicity and biodegradability. It is necessary to continue with the determination of
pharmaceuticals products in waste waters; surface, underground and drinking water. This is a complex task due to huge number
of pharmaceuticals and metabolites with different chemical structure and physico-chemical properties. Although there are
several reports about the acute toxicity of active principles on several organisms, these data is not enough to evaluate the real
impact of pharmaceuticals on the environment. It is important to address the efforts to the study of chronic toxicity and to the
implementation of general standard methods, which take into account the metabolism, toxicity, concentration, biodegradability
and the adsorption on activated sludge of pharmaceuticals that will give a more real idea about the ecotoxicity of pharmaceutical
product.