Pharmaceutical waste and connected risks for the food chain

The pharmaceutical compounds are considered as emerging pollutants among the most potentially dangerous for environment and public health. The Authors, on one hand, have been involved, for a long time, in the monitoring of pharmaceuticals and illicit drugs in sewage and in their removal within treatment plants; on the other hand, they have been involved in the research of the toxicological effects (both environmental and clinical) related to their input in the food chain. The paper, which appears as a general survey of the problem of pharmaceuticals in the environment, examines the different sources of release of these pollutants into the environment and the impact of pharmaceutical residues on the food chain and, consequently, on human health. This impact is examined under the aspect of the sanitary risk due to the active ingredients contained in these compounds and through an analysis of their occurrence, found in literature, in different rings of the food chain itself.