Harmonisation of Pharmaceutical Take-Back Systems in the EU

When medicines enter the environment, they harm living species and ecosystems. Improper disposal of household pharmaceutical waste increases the concentration of pharmaceuticals in the environment and thus their detrimental impacts. Since 2004, the EU has obliged its Member States to establish ‘an appropriate collection system’ for unused and/or expired medication. However, as no implementation guidelines exist, large differences in the systems and their use remain. Pressure for adoption of guidelines harmonising the systems across the EU has been increasing. We address the question whether such harmonisation could mitigate pharmaceutical pollution, and which regulatory measures would be appropriate. To answer this, we conduct a comparative investigation of the systems’ regulation and an empirical study of citizens’ beliefs and behaviour across four European countries. We find a potential for increasing the effectiveness of pharmaceutical take-back systems through their harmonisation and conclude that the EU has the competence and tools to regulate this.

Pharmaceutical Pollution and Disposal of Expired, Unused, and Unwanted Medicines in the Brazilian Context

The occurrence of pharmaceuticals in the environment is an everyday recognized concern worldwide, and drugs as environmental contaminants have been detected in water and soil systems, posing risks to humans and wildlife. The presence of drugs in wastewater, groundwater, and even drinking water occurs in several countries, including Brazil, where the pharmaceutical market is expanding over the years. The adverse, harmful effects of pharmaceuticals in the environment range from the spreading of antimicrobial resistance and species survival to the interference with reproduction and increased cancer incidence in humans. Therefore, it is demanding to count on proper legislation to prevent these pollutants from entering the distinct environment compartments. In some developed countries, laws, directives, programs, and initiatives regarding drug disposal reach a mature status. In Brazil, federal laws dealing with drug residues’ management are recent, with flaws that might facilitate non-compliance with drug pollution issues. Besides, pharmacies and drugstores are not obligated to collect unneeded household medicines, while particular State laws aim to ordinate the disposal of drug residues regionally. In this review, we consider the current knowledge about pharmaceutical (drug) pollution, the recommendation and regulations on the disposal of useless medicines in some countries, and in the context of the expanding pharmaceutical market in Brazil. The awareness of emerging contaminants in the environment, besides the joint effort of authorities, consumers, and the general public nationwide, will be required to avoid pharmaceutical/drug pollution and achieve an eco-friendly environment and a sustainable society.

How to decrease pharmaceuticals in the environment? A review

The global problem of the presence of human and veterinary pharmaceuticals in the environment is under investigation. Despite the increase in the knowledge of its sources, fates and impacts, the assessment of risks and the derived prevention actions are limited to single cases. The predicted increasing trend in the usage of pharmaceuticals forces the various parties involved to think about comprehensive mitigation actions. There are many areas of daily human life and industrial operations where such actions should take place. Thereby, in the presented review, such actions were summarized and divided into the following groups: A. design, synthesis and production of pharmaceuticals, B. prescription, sales and waste handling, C. control of the sources with advanced technologies. As the total amount of proposed actions was found to be quite high, a ranking according to the term of effects was proposed using the pyramid of needs. The advantages of actions taken in the first steps of the pharmaceutical life cycle (acting on the upstream) over end-of-pipe actions and the application of advanced technologies (the downstream option) were discussed, with reference to expert opinions.