Global Assessment of the Impacts of Pharmaceutical Pollution

抄録

We will all use pharmaceuticals at some stage in our life. During manufacturing and following their use, these substances can be released to the natural environment. As pharmaceuticals are biologically active substances, in recent years there has been increasing interest from scientists and the general public over the potential impacts of these molecules on aquatic and terrestrial organisms and on humans that consume contaminated drinking water and food items. To understand the impacts of pharmaceuticals in the environment it is essential to understand the concentrations of these molecules in the environment. Over the past two years, the University of York have been co-ordinating the Global Pharmaceutical Monitoring project which has quantified levels of pharmaceutical pollution at 1000 locations across 105 countries. Highest levels of pollution are seen in rivers in Africa and Asia receiving inputs from manufacturing plants, raw sewage disposal or trash dumping. Comparison of the data with available ecotoxicological effects data suggest that, at the most contaminated sites, the growth and reproduction of fish and invertebrate populations will be impaired and the levels of antimicrobial resistant bacteria will be enhanced. Solutions are therefore urgently needed to this problem in order to protect the health of ecosystems and human populations across the globe.