By: Sarva Mangala Praveenaa, Maizatul Zahirah Mohd Rashida, Fauzan Adzima Mohd Nasira, Wee Sze Yeeb, Ahmad Zaharin Aris

Article Prepared By: Farah Izana Abdullah

Pharmaceutical residues may pose a health risk to people. The presence of pharmaceutical residues in environment is attributed to pharmacological effluent discharge, municipal wastewater effluent from households and hospitals, inappropriate disposals of expired pharmaceuticals and veterinary drugs runoff from livestock farming. In Malaysia, pharmaceutical compounds in conventional water system have not been sufficiently removed, causing drinking water supplied to the public to carry pharmaceutical residues. Pharmaceuticals are known as endocrine disruptive compounds (EDCs) which can interfere with the hormones at any stage of human development and can cause morphological and functional effects in the human system, infertility as well as abnormal prenatal and childhood development. Therefore, a study was conducted to determine pharmaceutical residues such as amoxicillin, caffeine, chloramphenicol, ciprofloxacin, dexamethasone, diclofenac, nitrofurazone, sulfamethoxazole, and triclosan occurrence in drinking water from residential area of Putrajaya (Malaysia). Study has found the presence of pharmaceutical residue concentrations up to 0.38 ng/L, with the highest concentration of caffeine (0.38 ng/L) and the lowest concentration of diclofenac (0.14 ng/L). Overall, the pharmaceutical residue concentrations in this study were found to be lower, compared to previously similar studies involving drinking water worldwide and possessed low potential health hazards for all age groups.

Web: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoenv.2019.05.051

Date of Input: 30/11/2021 | Updated: 30/11/2021 | nsyahirah