Due to the technological advancements recently, even small amounts of compounds could be detected from the water. Thus, even tiny pharmaceutical compounds are being detected from the water sources such as lakes and streams. The presence of compounds in the water sources is due to drain water that goes into these sources.

Somehow, these compounds find a way into the drains of cities, towns and from the drains, these compounds get mixed with the water in lakes and rivers.

Presence of pharmaceutical compounds in the water sources

With so much importance given to the environment these days, presence of pharmaceutical compounds in the water sources has emerged as one of the important issues concerning the environment degradation. It has already been proved that presence of these chemical compounds has had an adverse effect on the marine life and ecosystem. Issues like slow reproduction in some species have been found by experts, which are being credited to the presence of these pharmaceutical compounds in the water.

An early survey taken by United States Geological survey in 2002 showed that around eighty percent of streams that were sampled had showed presence of these compounds. Proper disposal of pharmaceutical products, hence, becomes very important.

• It has been our long habit to flush down the medicines to prevent its misuse but what we don’t know is that when these medicines pass through the drain, harm the bacteria that are helpful in breaking down the sewage.
• Most sewage treatment plants do not treat the pharmaceutical compounds present in the water are released into the nearby water resources. This is one of the reasons why the concentration of pharmaceutical compounds is increasing these days.
• Even a small concentration of these compounds could be harmful for the fishes in the lakes or rivers. This could create a huge problem throughout the marine food chain and could destabilize the marine ecosystem itself.
• It has also been found that some Medical drugs even contain small quantities of heavy metals like mercury. This could have a serious effect on the marine environment.

These days the government has asked the manufacturing companies to release flush guidelines for each prescription drugs. Hence, these federal guidelines should always be followed and only those drugs should be flushed that have a label suggesting it to do so. This would ensure that no more harmful compounds from the pharmaceutical drugs pass on to the drains and mix with the water resources such as lakes and rivers.