Pharmaceutical compounds in drinking water

Abstract

Pharmaceutical products and their wastes play a major role in the degradation of environment. These drugs have positive as well as negative consequences on different environmental components including biota in different ways. Many types of pharmaceutical substances have been detected with significant concentrations through various advanced instrumental techniques in surface water, subsurface water, ground water, domestic waste water, municipal waste water and industrial effluents. The central as well as state governments in India are providing supports by creating excise duty free zones to promote the pharmaceutical manufacturers for their production. As a result, pharmaceutical companies are producing different types of pharmaceutical products at large scale and also producing complex non-biodegradable toxic wastes byproducts and releasing untreated or partially treated wastes in the environment in absence of strong regulations. These waste pollutants are contaminating all types of drinking water sources. The present paper focuses on water quality pollution by pharmaceutical pollutants, their occurrences, nature, metabolites and their fate in the environment.