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The Afterlife of Drugs and the Role of PharmEcovigilance
Citation:
DAUGHTON, C. G. AND I. RUHOY. The Afterlife of Drugs and the Role of PharmEcovigilance. Drug Safety. Wolters Kluwer Health, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 31(12):1069-1082, (2008).
Impact/Purpose:
Land Preservation and Restoration - by providing state-of-the-science chemical methods (encompassing sampling, preparation, separation, detection, and interpretation) to allow rapid and accurate field and laboratory analyses of contaminated soils, sediments, biota, and groundwater to support Superfund and hazardous waste clean-up decisions.
Description:
The prescribing and usage of medications have ramifications extending far beyond conventional medical care. The healthcare industry has an environmental footprint because the active ingredients from pharmaceuticals enter the environment as pollutants by a variety of routes, primarily from excretion, bathing, and disposal. Although most of these bioactive chemicals enter the environment at very low concentrations, they nevertheless have the potential to adversely affect aquatic organisms such as by modulation of hormonal signaling systems. Ultimately, these chemicals can be inadvertently "recycled" via contamination of drinking water and foods, leading to unexpected and inappropriate human exposure. A broad spectrum of actions can be taken by physicians and the healthcare community at large to reduce the release and introduction of medication ingredients to the environment. Most significantly, however, nearly any action taken to reduce their introduction to the environment can also have collateral benefits regarding the cost and quality of healthcare and therapeutic outcomes. Existing pharmacovigilance monitoring programs designed to detect and prevent adverse drug reactions could be expanded to also focus on the adverse impacts from drugs in the environment. Such a program has been termed pharmEcovigilance. A major reason for the medical community to implement a pharmEcovigilance program - - beyond reducing its environmental footprint - -could be the previously unforeseen benefits in optimization of delivery, effectiveness, and cost of healthcare.