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Research
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| Household Disposal of Pharmaceuticals as a Pathway for Aquatic Contamination in the United Kingdom Jonathan P. Bound and Nikolaos Voulvoulis Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom Abstract
Pharmaceuticals are produced and used in increasingly large volumes every year. With this growth comes concern about the fate and effects of these compounds in the environment. The discovery of pharmaceuticals in the aquatic environment has stimulated research in the last decade. A wide range of pharmaceuticals has been found in fresh and marine waters, and it has recently been shown that even in small quantities, some of these compounds have the potential to cause harm to aquatic life. The primary pathway into the environment is the use and disposal of medicines ; although much of the research in the area currently focuses on the removal of pharmaceuticals during sewage treatment processes, disposal via household waste might be a significant pathway requiring further research. To investigate the household disposal of unused and expired pharmaceuticals as a source of pharmaceutical compounds in the environment, we carried out a survey and interviewed members of 400 households, predominantly from southeastern England. We used the information on when and how they disposed of unfinished pharmaceuticals to construct a conceptual model to assess the pathways of human pharmaceuticals into the environment. The model demonstrated that disposal of unused pharmaceuticals, either by household waste or via the sink or toilet, may be a prominent route that requires greater attention. Key words: drugs, prescriptions, risk assessment, survey, wastewater treatment. Environ Health Perspect 113: 1705-1711 (2005) . doi:10.1289/ehp.8315 available via http://dx.doi.org/ [Online 9 August 2005]
Address correspondence to N. Voulvoulis, Department of Environmental Science and Technology, Imperial College London, London, SW7 2BP UK. Telephone: 44-207-594-7359. Fax: 44-0-2075810245. E-mail: n.voulvoulis@imperial.ac.uk J.P.B. received support from the Holly Hill Trust. The authors declare they have no competing financial interests. Received 13 May 2005 ; accepted 9 August 2005.
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