Ecological Consequences of Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products Use

PPCP generally stands for the Pharmaceuticals and Personal care products. This acronym PPCPS simply generally refers to any given products or commodity that are mainly used by people for their personal health. Pharmaceuticals are commonly used treat or prevent the animal and human infections. On the other hand personal care products such as shampoos,lipsticks,deodorants,tooth paste and moisturizers are mainly used enhance the quality of daily life .. Also they might be using the product for agribusiness purposes mainly for improving the production of farming. Besides that an individual may also use the product for the purpose of applying the product to enhance the external color or texture of the skin such as the lipsticks, eyeliner and the makeup.

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PPCPs details

PPCPs entail a wide range of chemical products such as the veterinary drugs, lotions, prescription drugs and over the counter therapeutic drugs.

Most people have been largely observed adding several chemicals to the environment. Thereby this has been an interesting captivating area for environmentalist to research on. This PPCPS products have been confirmed its presence in soil and water. Basically, simple human practices such as the use of lotion, shaving and taking the medication mostly affect the environment where an individual or a community resides (Klosterhaus, Grace, Hamilton, and Yee, 2013). The importance of individuals adding chemicals to the environment has been largely overlooked. (Buxton, 2002)

The discovery of PPCPs in water and soil shows even simple activities like shaving, using lotion, or taking medication affect the environment on which you live.

Human health and ecological consequences

Significantly, Several research have to be undertake in this field of study in order for the environmentalist to determine the ecological harm of PPCPs to the environment and the potential effects of these products on human health. PPCPs pollute the environment such as water, air and soil. Much concentration of these products for instance in the soil may kill the microorganisms that usually aerates the soil and decomposes the organic materials (Khraisheh, Kim, Campos, Alaa, Al-Hawari, Al Ghouti, and Walker, 2014). This therefore will affect the agricultural production. The higher concentration may affect the PH of the soil hence causes ecological harm. The potential impacts on organisms may include delayed growth and development in fish, delayed metamorphosis process in frogs.

Antidepressants such as Paxil and Zoloft have been found by researchers in universities to be in fish and frogs. U.S. Geological Survey did the research and vividly implemented a national reconnaissance which provided baseline of important information on the environmental occurrence of PPCPs in water resources. PPCPs in the environment are frequently found in aquatic environments or in water bodies. This is because the PPCPs naturally dissolve easily and cant vaporize easily at normal temperature and pressures. Human activities such as the disposal of sewage such as bio solids and the reclaimed water that are majorly used for irrigation makes the PCPs get into contact with the soil. Therefore, the use of PPCP do vary with the quantity used, quantity consumed since the concentration of ground water are not mostly reliable to indicate the contamination intensity ( Kolpin, 2002).

Azithromycin has the chemical form of PPCPs. This chemical component is synthetic version of a naturally produced macrolide antibiotic which is a component of erythromycin. This chemical has been researched on and has been ranked as the top 10 widely prescribed pharmaceutical drug. This drug has posed an interesting field for the researchers to majorly base on.it are readily available within the environment samples (Phillips et al., 1998).

The toxicity of PPCPs to environment has not been well researched and understood well. Therefore PPCPs toxicity has raised several concerns on masculinization and feminization by majorly xenoestrogens and the hormones. They are complex mixtures that are of low concentrations, potential emergences of resistant strains have been potentially harmful to human health.

Prospects for management

In conclusion, the implementation of the Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants (POPs) aims at regulating policies their production and use has been examined. Several research projects and policies are running to maximize the use of advanced sewage treatment techniques under different conditions. The advanced techniques have increased the costs for the sewage treatment substantially. Policies and measures have been set to restrict most manufacturing industries to set their products standards such as the quality standards .The Bureau standards set rules and regulation that governs the products produced in pharmaceutical center.

References

Blair, B.D., Crago, J.P., Hedman, C.J. and Klaper, R.D., 2013. Pharmaceuticals and personal care products found in the Great Lakes above concentrations of environmental concern. Chemosphere, 93(9), pp.2116-2123.

Cincinelli, A., Martellini, T., Coppini, E., Fibbi, D. and Katsoyiannis, A., 2015. Nanotechnologies for removal of pharmaceuticals and personal care products from water and wastewater. A review. Journal of nanoscience and nanotechnology, 15(5), pp.3333-3347.

Khraisheh, M., Kim, J., Campos, L., Alaa, H., Al-Hawari, A., Al Ghouti, M. and Walker, G.M., 2014. Removal of pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) pollutants from water by novel TiO 2Coconut Shell Powder (TCNSP) composite. Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, 20(3), pp.979-987.

Klosterhaus, S.L., Grace, R., Hamilton, M.C. and Yee, D., 2013. Method validation and reconnaissance of pharmaceuticals, personal care products, and alkylphenols in surface waters, sediments, and mussels in an urban estuary. Environment international, 54, pp.92-99.

Liu, F.F., Zhao, J., Wang, S., Du, P. and Xing, B., 2014. Effects of solution chemistry on adsorption of selected pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) by graphenes and carbon nanotubes. Environmental science & technology, 48(22), pp.13197-13206.

Liu, J.L. and Wong, M.H., 2013. Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs): a review on environmental contamination in China.Environment international, 59, pp.208-224.

Phillips, V.R., Holden, M.R., Sneath, R.W., Short, J.L., White, R.P., Hartung, J., Seedorf, J., Schroder, M., Linkert, K.H., Pedersen, S. and Takai, H., 1998. The development of robust methods for measuring concentrations and emission rates of gaseous and particulate air pollutants in livestock buildings. Journal of Agricultural Engineering Research, 70(1), pp.11-24.

Sui, Q., Cao, X., Lu, S., Zhao, W., Qiu, Z. and Yu, G., 2015. Occurrence, sources and fate of pharmaceuticals and personal care products in the groundwater: A review. Emerging Contaminants, 1(1), pp.14-24.

Tanoue, R., Nomiyama, K., Nakamura, H., Kim, J.W., Isobe, T., Shinohara, R., Kunisue, T. and Tanabe, S., 2015. Uptake and Tissue Distribution of Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products in Wild Fish from Treated-Wastewater-Impacted Streams. Environmental science & technology,49(19), pp.11649-11658.

Weber, C.I. ed., 1991. Methods for measuring the acute toxicity of effluents and receiving waters to freshwater and marine organisms (No. 363.739463 M592m). Environmental Monitoring Systems Laboratory, Office of Research and Development, US Environmental Protection Agency.