Introduction

Pharmaceuticals are widely used in human and veterinary medicines, agriculture, and aquaculture purposes to save life, because they are designed to specifically interact with biochemical mechanisms of a higher vertebrate species at low concentrations. These compounds are known as emerging contaminants and have attracted significant interest in recent years because their presence and their consequences had gone unnoticed so far. Among these pollutants, one of the most important groups and currently more studied by the ecopharmacovigilance are pharmaceuticals. The indiscriminate use of these compounds and their improper disposal have generated income of pharmaceuticals to aquatic ecosystems by municipal, hospital, and industrial discharges, which has caused various toxic effects on the environment.

The aim of this chapter is to review, compile, and analyze reports on the occurrence of pharmaceuticals around the world, and its major toxic effects in aquatic organisms, as well as the legislation of these compounds, to evaluate the potential environmental health impacts of trace levels of these pharmaceuticals in aquatic environments.