Impact on Environment

Abstract

It is probably clear to everyone that pharmaceutical products have increased the quality of life tremendously for billions of people around the globe over the years. During the last decade it has also become more and more evident that manufacturing and use of medicinal products may impact negatively on the environment.

The impact on environment may occur throughout the life cycle, from manufacturing and preparation, through distribution and dispensing, to patient excretion and final disposal of unused medicines and waste.

The impacts include the potential emissions and discharges of medicinal substances, so called active substances, as well as other chemicals and solvents used. Active substances are biologically active, and hence it is likely that they will potentially affect organisms, e.g. water living organisms, if released into the environment. Eventually they could also negatively affect humans if concentrations in the environment increase high enough.

This chapter gives a general introduction, with references to the regulatory framework and briefly discusses environmental impacts from manufacturing of medicines, from patient excretion and from unused medicines. Although releases from manufacturing operations have received increased interest during previous years it should be realised that the major cause of the presence of active substances in the environment is the excretion of substances by humans and animals that subsequently find their way into surface waters through municipal waste water treatment systems.

Impacts from pharmacy operations are described and discussed in more detail and the chapter provides proposals for actions to be taken to minimise the environmental burden.

Based upon Chapter Milieu by Yvonne Bouwman-Boer en Mirjam Crul in the 2009 edition of Recepteerkunde.