Investigating the Effects of Pharmaceutical Wastes on the Environment and Human Health (Systematic review)

Pharmaceutical wastes that contain a range of antibiotics, painkillers and cancer drugs can cause environmental pollution and disruptions in the normal functioning of ecosystems and causing serious environmental and human health problems. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of pharmaceutical wastes on the environment and human health.
This study was conducted by searching databases of Science direct, PubMed , Google Scholar , SID , Springer ,Scopus, Elsevier using the keywords of Pharmaceutical wastes , Environment, Hazardous waste and Health from 2000 to 2018 and employing AND, OR words.
A systematic review of various studies showed that the environmental risks and damaging are the effects of pharmaceutical waste. Out of 40 articles related to the environmental impacts of pharmaceutical waste, 20 articles with high reliability and high significance, 15 articles with moderate significance, and 5 low reliability papers on the effects of medicinal wastes on human health including mortality and outbreaks of diseases Respiratory and pulmonary diseases, cancer, and negative effects on soil, agricultural products and drought are other adverse effect.
Research evidences declared the adverse effect of this type of wastes on the environment includings surface and underground water, plants, soil and agricultural products and fish can be resulted. Moreover serious damage to human health such as respiratory diseases, cancer, neurological disorders also are other adverse effects. However, this evidence requires a more comprehensive evaluation, so that the results need interpretation should be made with more caution.