Pharmaceuticals and Microplastics: Emerging Micropollutants at Land and Sea

Pharmaceuticals derived from medication, cosmetics, and household products have been identified as a rising micropollutant in the marine environment, leading to calls for sustainable consumption, a term referring to the use of goods and services which minimizes pollution and safeguards intergenerational equity (Cazals et al 2023).

Researchers who surveyed respondents in Archachon Bay along France’s southwestern coast have proposed inter alia that, with respect to individual consumption, policymakers consider the issue from its source, i.e. that a more collaborative approach toward prescription may facilitate lower volumes prescribed to patients (Cazals et al 2023), and consequently reduced wastage and disposal of medication. It should also be noted that marine pollution in coastal regions, which tend toward higher ecological production, may be more pronounced and therefore affected by such pollution (Beiras 2018), and especially in bays whose inward curvature may tend to encourage accumulation and recycling of pollutants.

An end-of-pipeline systemic concern involving pharmaceutical marine micropollutants is the incomplete removal of drugs from sewage systems prior to discharging wastewater into rivers and oceans, as observed in a study of the Eastern Mediterranean by Alygizakis and colleagues (2016).

Microplastics, meaning particles of plastic remnants smaller than 5mm (Alma et al 2023), are a critical terrestrial pollutant which is currently attracting attention, especially given that global plastic production for the year 2020 reached 370,000MT (Horton 2022). Microplastics may be detected in under-processed sewage by reason of textile fibers and toiletries (de Souza Machado et al 2016), and improper treatment of massive amounts of surplus and/or discarded plastic could contribute to the production of microplastics and their propagation into air and sea (Alma et al 2023).

Microplastics have been observed to enter and persist within the honeybee ecosystem and consequently human food chains (Alma et al 2023). Researchers have also noted the incorporation of nanoplastics (i.e. plastic residue measuring less than 0.1 μm) into non-human animals at the cellular level (de Souza Machado et al 2016).

The borders between marine, terrestrial, and atmospheric pollution are not always distinct. Pollution originating on land ultimately circulate into the atmosphere (by evaporation or dispersal) or at sea (via rivers and direct input). It is therefore imperative to address anthropogenic pollution at its source in our homes, workplaces, and communities.

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References:

• Alma, A.M., G.S. de Groot and M. Buteler. (2023). ‘Microplastics incorporated by honeybees from food are transferred to honey, wax and larvae’, Environmental Pollution 320 2023, 121078.

• Alygizakis, N. A., P. Gago-Ferrero, V.L. Borova, A. Pavlidou, I. Hatzianestis and N.S. Thomaidis. (2016). 'Occurrence and spatial distribution of 158 pharmaceuticals, drugs of abuse and related metabolites in offshore seawater', Science of the Total Environment, 541 2016, pp.1097–1105.

• Beiras, R. (2018). ‘Marine pollution: sources, fate and effects of pollutants in coastal ecosystems’. (Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2018).

• Cazals, C., S. Lyser and V. Kuentz-Simonet. (2023). 'How sustainable are daily medicine consumption practices? The case of a fragile coastal area, Arcachon Bay (SW, France)', Journal of Cleaner Production 416 2023, 137866.

• de Souza Machado, A.A., Kloas, W., Zarfl, C., Hempel, S., and Rilling, M.C. (2016). ‘Microplastics as an emerging threat to terrestrial ecosystems’. Glob Chang Biol. 2018 April ; 24(4): 1405–1416. doi:10.1111/gcb.14020

• Horton, A.A. (2022). ‘Plastic pollution: When do we know enough?’ Journal of Hazardous Materials, Volume 422, 2022, 126885, ISSN 0304-3894. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.126885