Evaluation of the potential environmental risk from the destination of medicines: an epidemiological and toxicological study.

Background: The high consumption of medicines by the population and their storage at home might cause an increase in the number of pharmaceutical substances that may be inappropriately discarded in the sanitary sewage, reaching an environmental aquatic. Thus, the effects of these emerging contaminants need more studies.

Objectives: To identify the profile of most medicines that are discarded by users of community pharmacy and evaluate the toxicity of the most disposed drugs.