Effect of Pharmaceuticals in Environment and Human Health

Abstract

The  water sources  contaminated with the  pharmaceutical pollutants flows into agricultural farmland, surface water, groundwater and drinking water. These  waters are directed towards cultivation and  it impacts the  quality of the  soil  and  the  crops  cultivated through  this contaminated water (Tables 1 and 2). Pharmaceutical pollutants are considered as external factors from the environment that affect the quality of the crops . The ingestion of pharmaceuticals as pollutants into the plants is either through soil or air. The pathway that the pollutants enter the plant is from the soil, through their roots and transported to the stem. The other route through which the plants take up the pollutants is through air in which, the leaves are capable of absorbing the atmospheric pollutants . The  pharmaceutical  pollutants  such  as  \(\beta\)-lactams, aminoglycosides,  macrolides,  tetracyclines,  sulfa  drugs,  herbicides  including  sulfonylurea, triazines, imidazolinone, phenylurea and bisphenol (BPA) are found to cause toxicity in plants. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) affect the plant growth, reproduction and crop productivity.