title: Global risk of pharmaceutical contamination from highly populated developing countries.
abstract: Global pharmaceutical industry has relocated from the west to Asian countries to ensure competitive advantage. This industrial relocation has posed serious threats to the environment. The present study was carried out to assess the possible pharmaceutical contamination in the environment of emerging pharmaceutical manufacturing countries (Bangladesh, China, India and Pakistan). Although these countries have made tremendous progress in the pharmaceutical sector but most of their industrial units discharge wastewater into domestic sewage network without any treatment. The application of untreated wastewater (industrial and domestic) and biosolids (sewage sludge and manure) in agriculture causes the contamination of surface water, soil, groundwater, and the entire food web with pharmaceutical compounds (PCs), their metabolites and transformed products (TPs), and multidrug resistant microbes. This pharmaceutical contamination in Asian countries poses global risks via product export and international traveling. Several prospective research hypotheses including the development of new analytical methods to monitor these PCs/TPs and their metabolites, highly resistant microbial strains, and mixture toxicity as a consequence of pharmaceutical contamination in these emerging pharmaceutical exporters have also been proposed based on the available literature.
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon 305-701, Republic of Korea; Institute of Chemical and Biological Sciences, University of Gujrat, Gujrat, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Muhammad Saif Ur
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Rehman
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon 305-701, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Naim
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Rashid
authors.affiliation: Institute of Chemical and Biological Sciences, University of Gujrat, Gujrat, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Muhammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ashfaq
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Science, PMAS Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Ameena
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Saif
authors.affiliation: Advanced Wastewater Treatment Lab, Institute of Geology, University of Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Nasir
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ahmad
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon 305-701, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: jihan@kaist.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Jong-In
authors.initials: JI
authors.lastname: Han
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture / Q000379:methods; D001459:Bangladesh; D002681:China; D003906:Developing Countries; D004345:Drug Industry; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D007194:India; D007220:Industrial Waste / Q000032:analysis; D010154:Pakistan; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations / Q000032:analysis*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012722:Sewage / Q000737:chemistry; D062065:Wastewater / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D007220:Industrial Waste; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations; D012722:Sewage; D062065:Wastewater
keywords: Industrial wastewater; Pharmaceuticals; Pollution; Research hypotheses; Toxicity