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Health & Medicine, Index & Reports
Mahesh

11/12/22 12:57 PM IST

Researchers call for action against pharma pollution

In News
  • Pharmaceutical pollution is an overlooked but urgent issue that needs coordinated action from across the pharmaceutical, healthcare and environmental sectors
Major Findings
  • Almost half, or 43 per cent, of the world’s rivers are contaminated with active pharmaceutical ingredients in concentrations that can have disastrous ramifications on health.
  • The domestic pharmaceutical industry needs to take the lead in limiting antibiotic pollution — one of the biggest problems the world is staring at. 
  • Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is often dubbed as one of humanity’s top 10 public health threats.
  • It occurs when disease-causing pathogens develop a resistance against the pharmaceuticals that could have neutralised them.
  • The build-up of AMR can happen due to several factors across the human, animal and environmental ecosystems.
  • In 2019, AMR accounted for more than half a million deaths in the European region and about five million globally. 
  • The chemicals present in these pharmaceuticals, find a way into waterways, after being excreted from the body or after being flushed down the toilet.
  • Most municipal sewage treatment facilities can’t remove these pharmaceutical compounds from drinking water and people end up consuming the same compounds.
Measures
  • Investment in public education on the proper disposal of drugs should be done as part of the drug take-back programs
  • Tougher Regulations to limit large-scale medicine flushing in hospitals, nursing homes and other healthcare institutions.
  • Additional research is desperately required to assess the potential human effects of pharmaceutical pollution.
Source- DTE

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