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Thematic report: Calculating the environment cost of use of pharmaceutical products by human in the environment

by Asmita Gaire | 19-05-2020 23:29




Do you know medicine/drugs that we consumed also have greater impact in the environment?

The more advancement is in the field of science and technology, the more environment is being affected. Do you know medicine/drugs that we consumed also have greater impact in the environment?

These modern medicines have become curse to the environment. When population is growing rapidly and people are attracted towards more sophisticated life and different kinds of beauty products and medical products, environment is affected in a great way. The pharmaceutical products when get diffused into the water system, its chemical is difficult to refine by water treatment plants as a result they easily get into ocean and fresh water route, in return we consumed it in our day to day life that mainly affects human reproductive system. According to a study published in June 2018 in the United States of America – Pharmaceutical manufacturing facility discharges can substantially increase the pharmaceutical load to U.S. wastewaters.

When we consume a drug, it gets absorbed into our body and then distributed in systemic circulation that gets metabolized into various forms and finally gets excreted. The metabolites of some drug is so toxic then drug itself is. Drugs get excreted mainly in the form of urine or faeces that gets deposited in sewers and then in water treatment plants and finally into water reservoirs. The water treatment plants are mainly manufactured to treat solid and virus and bacterias not the strong chemicals as found in pharmaceutical products.

Global spending on medicine continues to grow. As of 2018, approximately 1.2 trillion U.S. dollars had been spent on medicines, up from just 887 billion U.S. dollars in 2010. That number is expected to increase to 1.52 by the year 2023. https://www.statista.com/statistics/280572/medicine-spending-worldwide/ The pharmaceutical contaminants travel far and makes water resources very vulnerable. In the US, 80% of streams and 25% of groundwater are contaminated by numerous medications. Also, when the medications consumed by human come into contact with animals or get accidentally consumed by them, it's another threat. Example: vulture in South Asia has been poisoned by anti arthritis medication that human consume. Drug addiction, in the other hand is the greatest harm to human themselves.

Ibuprofen is one of the most common drugs (in trace amounts) found in drinking water across the world. Pfizer advises that a person would have to drink two liters of water per day for over 100,000 years to consume the equivalent of one 200 mg tablet of ibuprofen.

Also, you must know that drugs we use especially for pulmonary fibrosis and coronary patients, it really doesn't cure you, it justs aids you to add a little more span of years into your life. When we know all these facts, then why don't we follow healthy measures like weight reduction, exercises, healthy food and environment that protects you against these diseases and adds naturally years to your life.


So, does it mean we should stop consuming medicine? Exactly, I don't mean that but we can follow healthy and hygienic practices to keep ourselves healthy so that we can avoid those medicines. We can also practice consuming natural herbs with medicinal values. If we look back, the history says many disease got outbroke when people got attracted to modernization instead of nature. Green pharmacy is being followed recently with the aim of reducing drug contamination which is a good approach. These drugs have side effects to your health and environment as well. But we can avoid it. So, why don't we try our best to keep ourselves healthy for own as well as environment benefits.

picture source: https://noharm-europe.org/issues/europe/pharmaceuticals-environment-infographic

https://www.ecoinvestor.com.au/Assets/Eco-Investor/Free-2015/Feature-Pharmaceutical-pollutants-factsheet.jpg