Pharmaceuticals

Abstract

A wide range of pharmaceuticals including analgesics, antibiotics, and stimulants are detected in the environment, including coastal ecosystems. The major sources of these contaminations are municipal and hospital wastewater treatment plants. Today, pharmaceuticals can be found, at trace levels, widely in a variety of environments, including estuaries. Many of them show persistence to biodegradation in the environment; therefore they may bioaccumulate in living organisms potentially causing adverse effects.