The residues of cytostatic drugs in the environment – unexplored environmental problem

Polona Brezovšek, Metka Filipič, The residues of cytostatic drugs in the environment  – unexplored environmental problem, Ekolist 09, 2013

It is widely known that pharmaceuticals together with modern medicine brought enormous  benefits to humanity in terms of healthier and  longer lives. Moreover, health represents the  highest value in majority of modern societies. Furthermre, health is essential to human welfare  and to sustained economic and social development. However, do we ever ask ourselves what  is the fate of pharmaceuticals after they have been used? As they do not degrade, pharmaceuticals eventually end up in the environment.  Nowadays scientists are researching the fate of pharmaceuticals in the environment and their effect on environmental organisms and human  health. One of the projects selected to investigate this field and to answer these questions is the CytoThreat project, coordinated by National Institute of Biology in Ljubljana and financed by the European Commission. Young researchers from Environmental Engineering Institute are also working on this project.

In this article we present the problem of pharmaceuticals in the environment: how do pharmaceuticals end up in the environment, which pharmaceuticals do we investigate, how they can affect environmental organisms and human health, what is already known and how our research work will contribute to the existing scientific knowledge.

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