15. Pharmaceuticals for Human Use: An Integrated Strategy for Reducing the Contamination of Water Bodies

Pharmaceuticals are in many cases an indispensable element of a comfortable and healthy life. Nevertheless, there is also a downside to the extensive use of medicinal products: their impact on the environment. Since the early 1990s, research findings have confirmed the occurrence of a wide range of human and veterinary active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) in surface waters, in groundwater and occasionally even in drinking water. Moreover, an increasing volume of data shows that specific substances can also trigger negative effects in animals and plants (for an up-to-date overview cf. Kümmerer 2008, SRU 2007). It still remains scientifically uncertain which risks to humans and the environment actually exist. It must be expected, however, that the problem will be aggravated in coming years, since the demographic development in Europe towards increasingly aging societies will bring with it an increase in consumption of medicinal products (see van der Aa and Kommer, Chap.​ 13, this book). The need for precautionary action is therefore more and more indicated.