Pharmaceuticals in the environment--Global occurrences and perspectives.

Pharmaceuticals are known to occur widely in the environment of industrialized countries. In developing countries, more monitoring results have recently become available, but a concise picture of measured environmental concentrations (MECs) is still elusive. Through a comprehensive literature review of 1016 original publications and 150 review articles, the authors collected MECs for human and veterinary pharmaceutical substances reported worldwide in surface water, groundwater, tap/drinking water, manure, soil, and other environmental matrices in a comprehensive database.

Antineoplastic compounds in the environment-substances of special concern.

Antineoplastic drugs are important in the treatment of cancer. Some interact directly with the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and are of utmost importance in terms of risk. As highly active compounds, antineoplastics and their metabolites are largely excreted into wastewater and are found in the aquatic environment up to the lower μg/L range.