Effects on Pharmaceuticals in the Environment — an Overview and Principle Considerations

Abstract

For the 2 684 and more than 3 000 pharmaceutical compounds registered in Germany (Rote Liste 2000) and Great Britain (Ayscough et al. 2000), respectively, the predominant proportion of the available information is characterised by data from preclinical and clinical studies. These data and respective peer- and non-peer reviewed literature can either be retrieved from the pharmaceutical companies themselves or in a more concentrated fashion from on-line databases, e.g. Toxnet (http://www.sis.nlm.nih.gov/ToxSearch.cfm), which includes information from databases such as HSDB, Genetox, Toxline etc., and from literature databases, e.g. MedLine, Biosis and Embase. Little information can be found, however, on the fate, transport and effects of these pharmaceuticals once they have been released into the environment (direct disposal and/or indirect disposal via sewage treatment plants, STPs). This paucity of data raises several questions: do the pharmaceuticals reach the environment and in what quantity? What are the known and potential acute, subchronic and chronic adverse effects of these compounds in exposed environmental species and the ecosystem as a whole?