Impact of Pharmaceutical Waste on Biodiversity

The increase in levels of pharmacological substances in the environment and their potential adverse effects on biological systems are a problem of global relevance that will pose greater challenges to countries with high rates of population growth. There is evidence that the incorporation of pharmacological substances into organisms and ecosystems puts genetic diversity, species diversity, and community diversity at risk.

There are several pathways through which waste pharmaceuticals can reach to organisms; the main one is through sewage discharge into aquatic ecosystems affecting organism such as microorganisms, fishes, and invertebrates, which can be consumed by higher trophic levels and cause trophic cascade effects. Also the use of treated wastewater for agricultural irrigation can affect the plants which are at the base of the trophic chain. Most of the studies about the effect of pharmaceutical on organisms have omitted to test nonlethal effects, such as change in behavior, reproduction, and stress and changes in community composition and structure. The few studies that have addressed these effects have showed that these changes can affect organisms’ survival or reproductive success, which are linked to their biological fitness, and can affect population and community dynamics and precede species extinctions.

Due to the vulnerability of Mexican species and ecosystems to human pressures, it is necessary to begin evaluating and carrying out actions that minimize the risks to biodiversity of drug contamination. The areas in which this type of action would be necessary are those in which it finds a high biological diversity with a high percentage of endemic or endangered species, as well as in ecosystems where ecological processes are fundamental to the maintenance of biodiversity and environmental services at the regional level.