Water pollutants from pharmaceutical industry

This year's World Water Week in Stockholm has already highlighted the threat of freshwater pollution coming from different invisible chemicals such as pesticides, flame retardants, steroids and even hormones from birth-control pills. This micro pollution could have very negative impact to not only our environment but also to our health.

Many scientists believe that governments across the world should put a lot more emphasis on pollution coming from pharmaceutical industry such as hormones from birth-control pills, antibiotics, anti-depressants, tranquilizers and cancer treatments, all of which could find their way into the water cycle via different pathways.

Hormones from birth control could have serious effects by feminizining the male fish population in rivers and lakes all over the world, which could lead to problems with fish reproduction, while other pollutants might even be carcinogenic, and thus presenting a significant threat to human health.

Many scientists have already warned about the hazards coming from waste water, and gave their suggestion that this waste water should be collected separately because of large number of different chemicals.

This area certainly needs more research, and pollutants coming from pharmaceutical industry need to be monitored more closely, and this has to be done before the water enters a treatment plant.

Many pharmaceutical products pose significant environmental and health risk, and something has to be done about evaluating these products prior to their authorization. Failure to do so could lead to severe pollution of our rivers and lakes.