“Medicines” are one of the essential factors for human survival. Yet at the same time, they are contributing to “pharmaceutical pollution” caused by Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) contaminating water sources worldwide — including rivers, lakes, and groundwater — becoming a silent threat to ecosystems and global health.
This problem has escalated rapidly alongside advances in modern medicine. Today, around 4,000 pharmaceutical active ingredients are used globally, and according to the United Nations, 631 pharmaceutical substances and drug metabolites have already been detected in the environment across 71 countries.
Meanwhile, a study published in the journal PNAS in 2022 found pharmaceutical contamination in more than 1,000 rivers across 104 countries on every continent, clearly indicating that this is not a localized issue, but a global crisis.
CR.https://www.bangkokbiznews.com/sustainability/environment/1225619
