Pharmaceutical contamination, as a research topic, concerns the presence and behavior of active pharmaceutical ingredients, metabolites, and excipients in environmental or biological matrices where they are unintended. It encompasses sources such as human and veterinary excretion, improper disposal, manufacturing discharges, and hospital effluents, and addresses fate processes including sorption, transformation, and bioaccumulation. Studies focus on occurrence at trace to ultra-trace concentrations, mixture effects, and modes of action that may induce ecotoxicological or sublethal impacts, including endocrine disruption and antimicrobial resistance selection. The topic also covers analytical detection methods, environmental risk assessment frameworks, and mitigation strategies like advanced wastewater treatment and source-control policies.
A two-year research investigation led by QUT has revealed horses can be exposed to a banned anabolic steroid through hay and pasture weeds, potentially causing positive drug tests for innocent riders and horses.
Veterinary medicine
Oct 1, 2025
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20
Municipal wastewater treatment plants are ineffective at removing Prozac (fluoxetine) and other common pharmaceuticals in wastewater, causing the drugs to be discharged into lakes, rivers and streams where they pose a risk ...
Environment
Sep 24, 2025
2
262
Frogs, toads, salamanders and other amphibians are disappearing as fast as—or faster than—any other class of animals around the world, succumbing to a variety of threats, like emerging infectious diseases. According to new ...
Ecology
Sep 15, 2025
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27
Wastewater from aircraft toilets could provide a critical warning system for the global spread of antimicrobial resistant (AMR) superbugs, a silent pandemic that threatens to kill more people than cancer by 2050.
Cell & Microbiology
Aug 18, 2025
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22
Antibiotic resistance in the environment is a growing and largely overlooked crisis receiving inconsistent attention that may very well have dire consequences for human health, according to a new study led by the University ...
Ecology
Aug 7, 2025
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16
The first UK study to monitor antimicrobial resistance and influenza viruses in water bodies has revealed that 92% of samples contained genes for resistance to colistin, an antibiotic of last resort.
Cell & Microbiology
Jul 31, 2025
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20
When people take antibiotics, some of the dose is excreted with urine and feces and ends up in our wastewater. The presence of this low dose of antibiotic creates an opportunity for resistant bacteria to evolve.
Cell & Microbiology
Jul 10, 2025
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176
Urban water bodies—rivers, lakes and oceans—are in trouble globally. Large sewage volumes damage the open environment, and new chemicals and pharmaceutical compounds don't break down on their own. When they are released into ...
Environment
Jul 7, 2025
1
27
An international study by Michigan State University and partner researchers has uncovered a hidden danger lurking in animal farms around the world: Livestock manure is packed with antibiotic resistance genes that could threaten ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jun 30, 2025
0
35
Antibiotics are one of the greatest triumphs in the history of medical science—but these lifesaving tools have a dark side. Their persistent use can produce "superbugs"—drug-resistant microbes that pose a danger to humans, ...
Biotechnology
Jun 27, 2025
0
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