Risk Evaluation and Legal Framework of the Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs Around the World

Ecological risk assessment is generally carried out to assess the dose that may be harmful to particular species found in the freshwater. The ecological risk assessment is generally expressed through RQ or hazardous quotient, RQ < 0.1 suggests no risk, 0.1 ≤ RQ ≤ 1.0 suggests medium risk, and RQ > 1.0 suggests high risk to that particular species. Regarding this, the risk of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) has been particularly studied by several researchers in many countries because they are pharmaceuticals of high consumption by the population due to their analgesic, anti-inflammatory, and antipyretic properties, as well as their occurrence in different water bodies at different concentrations and the toxic effects reported in organisms that are exposed to them. Due to the results obtained, they have also been considered for future regulations, and in particular, diclofenac was added to the list of priority substances of the European Commission which should be monitored as water pollution agents in the European Union. In this chapter we will discuss some of these risk assessment studies as well as the legislation proposed by some countries for their regulation.