Pharmaceutical Remnants and Residues in Water and Its Impact on Human Health and Aquatic Life
Keywords:
Pharmaceutical waste, Drug residue, Toxicity, Human health, Aquatic lifeAbstract
Background and aims: Drugs that have expired, unused, spilled, recalled, damaged, contaminated, or removed from circulation for other reasons are referred to as pharmaceutical waste. Pharmaceuticals and their waste pose a threat to human health and contribute significantly to environmental deterioration. Using a variety of sophisticated experimental approaches, numerous pharmaceutical compounds have been found in considerable amounts in groundwater, surface water, subsurface water, household waste water, municipal waste water, and industrial effluents. The current review focuses on pharmaceutical wastes’ effects on water quality, including their prevalence, characteristics, and environmental fate that endangers human health. Methods: Keywords including pharmaceutical wastes, pharmacological action of drug residue, drug waste in water, drug residue in environment, antibiotics in water, illicit drug substances, pharmaceutical waste disposal, wastewater treatment, and human health were used to search research databases including Google Scholar, EBSCO, PubMed, Springer, Science Direct, and NIH. The data was collected from the books, literatures and websites were then analyzed, discussed and properly summarized. Results: Pharmaceuticals, nanomaterials and cosmeceuticals are the products and their metabolite substances that are present in surface water, drinking water and wastewater are not well known in many cases. Even at low concentrations, many active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) maintain their biological activity, which might affect aquatic environments and have an impact on human health. So, public health is seriously at danger due to their unknown toxicity, teratogenicity, and carcinogenicity profile as well as a lack of monitoring and control mechanisms. Conclusion: To reduce environmental and human health risk, effective waste management, government policy, organization policy and public awareness are crucial to ensure that discarded pharmaceuticals wouldn’t contribute to exacerbate ecological problems and human health.
J MEDICINE 2026; 27: 114-127
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