Before considering the big pharma lies about their role in environmental pollution, let’s take a moment to consider the sheer scale of this ever-escalating catastrophe.
In excess of 100,000 tonnes of Big Pharma products are consumed globally per year. During the manufacture of these products, their use and disposal, there is a release to the environment of what are termed Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) along with other chemical toxins.
What is the environmental impact of APIs?
So, what proportion of ingested APIs are eventually released to the environment? It has been demonstrated that APIs are released in high amounts to the environment as from 30% to 90% of a human or veterinary oral dose of these pharmaceuticals is ultimately excreted in their active form.
A global review showed that over 600 APIs have been detected in the environment, in drinking water (these include birth control drugs, antidepressants, analgesics and anti-epileptics), waste-water and soil. Some of these at levels that pose a high risk to the environment and public health.
An example of high-risk APIs are antibiotics released to the environment which is accelerating the development of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) which is considered to be a major emerging threat to human health.
FACT: 4000 APIs are marketed globally as human or veterinary pharmaceuticals. The environmental impact of the majority of these substances is unknown.
What are Environmentally Persistent Pharmaceutical Pollutants?
Within the category of APIs is a particularly nasty sub-category referred to as Environmentally Persistent Pharmaceutical Products (EPPPs). These, as described by a United Nations report, are pharmaceuticals which are intended to be slowly degradable (even non-degradable) to resist chemical degradation during transit through a human or animal body. These present a particular risk when they are disseminated into the environment as they will persist in active form indefinitely.
According to a 2016 global review of studies no less than 631 Environmentally Persistent Pharmaceutical Pollutants were detected within the environment of 71 countries – including antibiotics, analgesics, statins, metformin (a popular drug for type 2 diabetes), oestrogens and many others.
These biologically active substances have the potential to adversely affect wildlife and ecosystems when they are not treated in an environmentally sound fashion.
EPPPs are widely and increasingly being used in pharmaceutical products, with little knowledge or concern for the environmental and health impacts of these pollutants.
There is an ever-increasing concern for APIs and EPPPs entering aquatic and soil environments. These are the fundamental and underlying causes of pharmaceutical pollution of the environment as a whole.
Causes of pharmaceutical pollution of aqueous environments
Pharmaceutical pollution may enter rivers and other aqueous environments in a number of ways including:
● Discharge from sewage treatment plants
● Discharge from private septic systems
● Leaching from landfill sites
● Hospital discharges
● Run off water from intensively farmed agricultural land
This will inevitably lead to unpredictable effects in non-target organisms although the development of potentially catastrophic antimicrobial resistance has been cited as a major concern.
Causes of pharmaceutical pollution as soil contamination
The dangers lie both in soil contamination, and bio-magnification through the uptake of these pharmaceuticals into food crops. The sources of release of pharmaceuticals into the environment include:
● Waste products from drug manufacture
● Excretion of pharmaceuticals from patient and animal recipients
● Aqua-farming
● Inappropriate disposal of unused and expired pharmaceuticals
What are the regulations regarding pharmaceuticals and the environment?
Amazingly, considering the increasing numbers of concerns raised, the release of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) into the environment remains virtually unregulated. The disturbing truth is as follows:
● Precise information on the impact on the environment of APIs has not been made available to the authorities or the public
● Environmental risk assessments only apply to a minority of pharmaceuticals
● Statutory monitoring requirements are insufficient and no emission limits are in situ for the release of APIs from pharmaceutical plants
● Limits on the content of pharmaceuticals in drinking water, surface water or waste water do not exist
● For the management of the majority of medicinal product waste there exist no specific regulations
● There is no obligation to regulate and monitor the levels of pharmaceuticals present in sewage waste or in agricultural manure
Despite big pharma lies relating to environmental pollution, they at the very least need to provide adequate information and transparency relating to the environmental impacts of these toxic and dangerous chemicals, resulting in independent, honest and reliable evaluation of the true environmental risks.
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