Human pharmaceuticals in the arctic - A review.

Pharmaceuticals have been deemed as 'contaminants of emerging concern' within the Arctic and are a potentially perennial form of pollution. With recent innovations in detection technology for organic compounds, researchers have been able to find substantial evidence of the presence and accumulation of pharmaceutical pollution within the Arctic marine ecosystem. The pharmaceuticals, which are biologically active substances used in diagnosis, treatment or prevention of diseases, may persist in the Arctic environment and may have an impact on the resident marine biota.

Persistence of norfluoxetine in marine mussels.

The concentration of pharmaceuticals in coastal waters is tending towards increasing due to a shift of the human population into coastal zones. In parallel, the number of prescriptions of antidepressants, mainly selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI), is constantly growing. Most of the SSRI is metabolised into active compounds; for instance, norfluoxetine (NFLU) is the main active metabolite of fluoxetine.