Chapter 6: Presence, Fate and Risks of Pharmaceuticals in the Environment

The history of the pharmaceutical sciences is a story of never ending creation of new molecules and searching for new mechanisms for the treatment of illness. The production and manufacturing of pharmaceuticals was associated for a long time with heavy pollution of the environment, as it was with the production of chemicals. Nowadays, at least in developed countries that is generally not the case anymore. However, pharmaceuticals, their metabolites and products of incomplete degradation are present in the environment because of their use, not because of improper treatment of waste and effluents from production. The presence of these compounds in the environment contributes to environmental pollution. Fate and effects are not yet fully understood.