There are concerns for both ecosystem health and a potential
health risk for humans through the consumption of food and
water containing pharmaceuticals residues. Ecological studies generally
report that human pharmaceuticals are not acutely toxic to
aquatic organisms, because their environmental concentrations are
typically very low [29,30]. A few studies have revealed evidence
for chronic long-term negative impacts of environmental pharmaceutical
exposure on living organisms and populations [29–31].
Pharmaceuticals are distinct from conventional pollutants with
respect to their potential ecotoxicology since they are specifically
designed to be bioactive at low concentrations. Moreover, they frequently
act on specific targets that can be widely conserved across
multiple life forms. Environmental concentrations (in impacted
aquatic systems typically ranging from ng to g per litre) may
therefore be of concern, and sub-lethal effects on non-target organism
have in some cases been found [31–33].