Effects of Pharmaceuticals Pollution in the Aquatic Environment on Aquatic Organism and Human Health / 环境与健康杂志

ABSTRACT

The pharmaceuticals have been playing an important role in insuring human health and stockbreeding for decades. However incompletely absorbed pharmaceuticals will find their way into the wastewater in their original structure or metabolites. The ineffective operation of wastewater-treatment plants makes it possible that the widespread appearance of pharmaceuticals in the aquatic environment. The pharmaceuticals become the kind of "persistent" pollutants in the aquatic environment since they have been widely and continually used in daily life although their half-lives are relatively short. Their occurrences threaten the aquatic ecological safety and human’s health. In recent years, European and North American countries have focused on the research of pharmaceuticals in the aquatic environment, while the related reports are scarce in China. This article comprehensively analyzed and discussed the effects of pharmaceuticals pollution in the aquatic environment on aquatic organism and human health. It will present an important reference for future related research as well as establishing ecological risk assessment of pharmaceuticals in aquatic environment in China.