Key Summary
- A project was awarded a £1.19M grant from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) to tackle pharmaceutical pollution.
- Medicines and improperly disposed drugs enter wastewater and have been detected in Scottish waters.
- The project will apply a systems-based “One Health” approach.
A group of institutes has launched a project called PhRESHWater (Pharmaceutical Reduction in the Environment through Sustainable Healthcare and Water Resources), which was funded with £1.19 million from UKRI to combat pharmaceutical pollution.
Researchers from the School of Pharmacy at the University of Nottingham are working with the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI), the James Hutton Institute, NHS Highland, and Heriot-Watt University to co-develop a novel systems-based approach to reducing the environmental impacts of medicines.
The entire pharmaceutical lifecycle can cause pollution, starting from production, prescribing, patient use, disposal, and wastewater treatment.
Pharmaceutical pollution in rivers, lochs and coastal waters is an internationally recognised public-health and environmental challenge.
For some medicines, up to 90 percent get excreted unchanged. These compounds enter wastewater systems that were not designed to remove them.
In addition, flushing unused or expired medicines causes pollution; such medicines should be returned to pharmacies for safe disposal.
Medicines such as antibiotics, anti-inflammatories and antidepressants have been detected in Scottish waters.
These substances are designed to affect human biology and may similarly affect aquatic life, while also contributing to the environmental spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
Dr Naoko Arakawa, School of Pharmacy at the University of Nottingham, said, “Considering the complicated issues around eco-toxicity and pharmaceutical pollution, it is great to build on our previous project, and strengthen our multidisciplinary collaboration.”
Using Scotland as a national pilot, the new PhRESHWater project brings together an interdisciplinary team spanning environmental, biomedical, materials, biological and social sciences, alongside key partners including Scottish Water, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), and Uppsala University in Sweden.
The project will apply a systems-based “One Health” approach that recognises the interconnectedness of human, animal and environmental health.
