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An environmental impact perspective of the management, treatment, and disposal of hazardous pharmaceutical compounds generated as medical waste at selected hospitals in Cape Town, South Africa
Author(s)
Sattar, Mohamed Shaheen
Date Issued
2011
Type
Thesis
Publisher
Cape Peninsula University of Technology
Abstract
Pharmaceuticals have been formulated to influence physiological systems in humans, animals, and
microbes but have never been considered as potential environmental pollutants by healthcare
professionals. The human body is not a barrier to chemicals, but is permeable to it. Thus after
performing their in-vivo functions, pharmaceutical compound introduced into the body, exit
mainly via urine and faeces. Sewage therefore contains highly complex mixtures of chemicals in
various degrees of biological potency. Sewage treatment works including those in South Africa,
on the other hand, are known to be inefficient in removing drugs from sewage and consequently
either the unmetabolised pharmaceutical compounds or their metabolites emerge in the
environment as pollutants via several trajectories. In the environment, the excreted metabolites
may even undergo regeneration to the original parent molecule under bacterial influence, resulting
in "trans-vivo-pharmaceutical-pollution-cycles".
Although all incinerators are known to generate toxins such dioxins and furans from the drugs
they incinerate, all the medicines disposed by the hospitals under research, were incinerated, as
the preferred option of disposal. The incineration process employed was found to be
environmentally unsafe.
Expired and unused medicines which the general public discard as municipal solid waste become
landfilled. Because many landfill sites are not appropriately engineered, the unwanted drugs
landfilled therein, leach into the surrounding ground water, which is the influent source of water
treatment plants. Water treatment plants, including those in South Africa, are also inefficient in
eliminating pharmaceutical compounds, releasing them in sub-therapeutic concentrations into
potable tap water as pollutants, the full effects of which are yet to be determined.
microbes but have never been considered as potential environmental pollutants by healthcare
professionals. The human body is not a barrier to chemicals, but is permeable to it. Thus after
performing their in-vivo functions, pharmaceutical compound introduced into the body, exit
mainly via urine and faeces. Sewage therefore contains highly complex mixtures of chemicals in
various degrees of biological potency. Sewage treatment works including those in South Africa,
on the other hand, are known to be inefficient in removing drugs from sewage and consequently
either the unmetabolised pharmaceutical compounds or their metabolites emerge in the
environment as pollutants via several trajectories. In the environment, the excreted metabolites
may even undergo regeneration to the original parent molecule under bacterial influence, resulting
in "trans-vivo-pharmaceutical-pollution-cycles".
Although all incinerators are known to generate toxins such dioxins and furans from the drugs
they incinerate, all the medicines disposed by the hospitals under research, were incinerated, as
the preferred option of disposal. The incineration process employed was found to be
environmentally unsafe.
Expired and unused medicines which the general public discard as municipal solid waste become
landfilled. Because many landfill sites are not appropriately engineered, the unwanted drugs
landfilled therein, leach into the surrounding ground water, which is the influent source of water
treatment plants. Water treatment plants, including those in South Africa, are also inefficient in
eliminating pharmaceutical compounds, releasing them in sub-therapeutic concentrations into
potable tap water as pollutants, the full effects of which are yet to be determined.
Additional information
Thesis (MTech (Environmental Health))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2011.
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