Pharmaceuticals in the environment: consequence of disposal practice

Pharmaceuticals have important role in curing and preventing diseases but if improperly disposed in environment they might have adverse effect on various ecosystems. Although pharmacovigilance is well defined and organized in most of the countries, potential harmful effect of the pharmaceuticals on the environment lately has been in the focus of scientific interest. As a consequence, European directives on pharmaceuticals request environmental risk assessment prior to the marketing. Often neglected problem is disposal of unused or unwanted pharmaceuticals from the households. Stronger education of both primary health care and patients is needed, but advices and recommendations must be acceptable and applicable for each specific group of patients and health care users.