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Health to harm: Researchers call for action against pharma pollution

  • December 10, 2022
  • Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
  • Category: DPN Topics
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Health to harm: Researchers call for action against pharma pollution

Subject :Environment

Context-

  • The academics from the University of Exeter, United Kingdom, have joined forces with thought leaders from other universities, industry, government and non-profit organisations to call for societal-wide action on reducing pharmaceutical pollution from human healthcare.

Extent of pharmaceutical pollution-

  • Almost half, or 43 per cent, of the world’s rivers are contaminated with active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) in concentrations that can have disastrous ramifications on health.
  • In 2019, AMR accounted for more than half a million deaths in the European region and about five million globally.

Major cause of this pollution-

  • Throwing away unused drugs/medicines rather than returning them to the pharmacies.
  • As a consequence, drug pollution levels are rising in waterways across the UK and globally.

Pharmaceuticals led water pollution in India-

  • India is one of the biggest manufacturers of pharmaceuticals worldwide.
  • Varieties of pharmaceuticals have been detected on the surface, ground, and even in drinking water in many Indian cities due to the discharge of waste effluents.
  • The pollutants majorly enter water bodies due to the following sources: pharmaceutical manufacturing plants, hospitals, wastewater treatment plants, etc.
  • As a consequence, they cause adverse effects on land, water, food, and people’s health.
  • It has been estimated that about 60000 newborns die annually in India because of multidrug-resistance infections, where pharmaceutical water pollution with antimicrobial drugs is responsible for that.
  • A range of emerging contaminants pollutes the rivers near the pharma sites.
  • Musi River in Hyderabad is highly contaminated with drugs from pharmaceutical companies.
  • The concentrations were about 1000 times higher than rivers found in developed countries.
  • When these pharmaceutical clusters come in contact with pathogenic bacteria, it causes harmful diseases in humans.
Environment Health to harm: Researchers call for action against pharma pollution

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