Impact, disease outbreak and the eco-hazards associated with pharmaceutical residues: a Critical review

In the last three decades, pharmaceuticals research has increased tremendously to offer safe and healthy life, though it emerged as a new threat to the environment. These pharmaceutical residues pose a threat to the public health, and ecological balance, particularly in surface water located in agricultural catchments are facing more serious challenges. If these pharmaceutical residues left untreated could contaminate soil, water and may lead to serious outbreaks. However, many conventional treatments are integrated into wastewater treatment plants (WWTP’s), but there is a lack of dedicated treatment in eliminating pharmaceutical residues. Thus, dedicated on-site treatment at source (such as Hospitals and pharmaceutical industries) is essentially needed before discharging effluent to sewers or water bodies. Furthermore, the potential impact of pharmaceutical compounds even in trace concentration is more severe than the other pollutants present in the environment. In contrast, very limited knowledge about how such compounds and their kinetics directly impacts the environment and long-term impacts on humans. Traces of antibiotic compounds in the aquatic environment lead to resistant bacterial strains, exhibit threat to organisms and human health, hence affecting treatment. The recent literature reported that the pharmaceutical residues enter the environment in trace level. But, in long terms, these pharmaceuticals, even in trace concentration, has a potential threat to human health and terrestrial ecosystem. In this review article, we summarize the pharmaceutical residues potential to cause disease outbreaks in community and eco-toxicological impacts on aquatic organisms. Herein, we have reviewed the literature (1996–2020) to draw worldwide attention on rising pharmaceutical residues in the environment and associated impacts, disease outbreaks and eco-hazards.