Pharmaceuticals and Environment
Here you can find information about the environmental impact of pharmaceuticals. You can search for a substance name. The environmental risk refers to the use of a pharmaceutical. The knowledge support is based on three sources:
1. environmental information from the European Medicines Agency's (EMA's) European Public Assessment Reports (EPARs)
2. environmental information on Fass.se
3. environmental risk assessments for certain substances based on concentrations measured in the environment in Sweden and effect studies.
Based on the two first-mentioned sources, environmental information is missing for many medicinal products. The database is based on Region Stockholm's work in Sweden and may mean, for example, that information about the Wise list, the drug formulary of recommended essential medicines for the entire Stockholm healthcare region, has been included.
Information about the classification
In a document there is information about the classification of the environmental hazard and the environmental risk. The classification of the risk is usually based on theoretical calculations of the risk. For more information see Classification.
For some substances there is also a risk assessment made on the basis of concentrations measured in the environment in Sweden and efficacy studies with high quality. These assessments are presented in the documents for the substances and are made by independent ecotoxicological expertise. Continuous work is underway to provide more substance documents with this type of environmental information and also present comparisons of environmental risk between substances intended for the same indication. Based on this type of risk assessment, a table of environmentally hazardous drugs Pdf, 41 kB. was developed within the framework of Region Stockholm's environmental program 2017–2021.
News
2024
Thiagarajan K. India's billion dollar pharma industry has a waste problem. BMJ. 2024 Aug 5;386:q1445. doi: 10.1136/bmj.q1445. PMID: 39103168.
2024-08-05
Brodin T, Bertram MG, Arnold KE. et al. The urgent need for designing greener drugs. Nat Sustain (2024).
2024-06-05
New EMA Guideline for the environmental risk assessment of medicinal products for human use effective from 2024-09-01
EMA
Castillo NA, James WR, Santos RO, et al. Understanding pharmaceutical exposure and the potential for effects in marine biota: A survey of bonefish (Albula vulpes) across the Caribbean Basin. Chemosphere, Volume 349, 2024, 140949, ISSN 0045-6535, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2023.140949.
Meyer C, Stravs MA, Hollender J. How wastewater reflects human metabolism – suspect screening of pharmaceutical metabolites in wastewater influent. Environ. Sci. Technol. 2024. DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.4c00968
Sanja Riikonen, Johanna Timonen, Tiina Sikanen. Environmental considerations along the life cycle of pharmaceuticals: Interview study on views regarding environmental challenges, concerns, strategies, and prospects within the pharmaceutical industry, European Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Volume 196, 2024, 106743, ISSN 0928-0987, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejps2024.106743.
Mark P. Lentz, Duncan J. Graham, Michelle T.H. van Vliet. Drought impact on pharmaceuticals in surface waters in Europe: Case study for the Rhine and Elbe basins, Science of The Total Environment, Volume 922, 2024, 171186, ISSN 0048-9697, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.171186.
Urban wastewater: Council and Parliament reach a deal on new rules for more efficient treatment and monitoring
Council of the European Union
2024-01-29
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