We are pleased to invite you to the 1st Online workshop of the Life Pharma Detox Project, which will be held on:
Date: January 17, 2025
At the Life Pharma Detox project, we’re committed to sustainability and public health.
The European Medicines Agency’s updated Guideline on Environmental Risk Assessment (ERA) for Medicinal Products for Human Use (September 2024) underscores the critical importance of evaluating the environmental impact of human medicinal products. This includes protecting aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems from potential hazards of active substances in medications.
The guideline introduces refined testing protocols and risk mitigation measures, ensuring that medicinal products align with ecological safety standards. It highlights the responsibility of pharmaceutical industries to adopt environmentally conscious practices across all stages of product life cycles.
Life Pharmadetox Project, supports these advancements by conducting toxicity tests on treated pharmaceutical residues to assess their impact on the environment and microorganisms. Our findings highlight the system’s potential to reduce pharmaceutical pollution while enabling the reuse of treated water in noncritical applications such as cleaning, irrigation, and heat exchange systems.
Download the Guideline: PDF
This bold commitment includes a $100 million fund to drive R&D in antibiotics, diagnostics, and innovative treatments. With AMR threatening millions of lives and the effectiveness of life-saving medicines, this pledge sets ambitious goals to protect public health on a global scale.
Mark your calendars for November 19, 2024, 14:00-15:30 CET to be part of a transformative webinar hosted by the AMR Industry Alliance for World Antimicrobial Awareness Week 2024!
This year’s theme, “Educate. Advocate. Act Now,” brings together global experts from WHO, CARB-X, and more to discuss actionable strategies for combating AMR.
Don’t miss the chance to learn from global leaders and be part of this essential dialogue!
Register here: https://counciladvisors.
The LIFE Pharma Detox team will participate in this event to promote sustainable solutions and support global AMR efforts.
In the 2024 report, Europe’s State of Water: The Need for Improved Water Resilience, the European Environment Agency (EEA) highlighted the critical role of addressing pollution from industrial waste and pharmaceuticals to enhance water resilience. The report identifies industrial pollutants and pharmaceuticals as significant contributors to water quality degradation, impacting both ecological health and human safety.
Industrial activities contribute to diffuse and point-source pollution, releasing harmful chemicals into surface and groundwater. These pollutants often include hazardous substances such as heavy metals, persistent organic pollutants, and compounds like polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The persistence of these contaminants is a barrier to chemical water quality improvement efforts, as evidenced by only 29% of European surface waters meeting the good chemical status criteria.
The pharmaceutical sector is also under the spotlight for its environmental impact. Medicines and personal care products often end up in waterways due to insufficient waste treatment facilities, affecting aquatic ecosystems and increasing risks for human health. Pharmaceuticals like antibiotics, hormones, and painkillers are known to disrupt biological systems in aquatic life, which can lead to reduced biodiversity and compromised water quality.
Pharmaceuticals, can be found also in urban wastewater, with 92% of the residual toxicity in urban wastewater coming from the pharmaceutical and cosmetics sectors. Attempting to manage harmful chemicals once they reach the environment is not a sustainable approach. The European Green Deal recognizes that a profound change in the production and use of chemicals is required.
The report points out improved wastewater treatment technologies and pollution prevention at source are key to reducing these impacts.
The Pharma Detox project plays a significant role in enhancing water resilience across Europe by addressing the persistent issue of pharmaceutical pollutants in aquatic environments. Incorporating advanced filtering, detoxification methods and use of Renewable Energy Resources, Pharma Detox works in line with the European Union’s Zero Pollution Plan, which highlights the need for cleaner water resources across Europe.
Download Report: https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/analysis/publications/europes-state-of-water-2024
At Life PharmaDetox, we have recently completed a series of experiments designed to evaluate the effectiveness of our prototype system in detoxifying Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs). These experiments aim to demonstrate the toxicological impact of treated samples on both the environment and microorganisms. We are excited to share the preliminary results and insights occurred during this phase.
Our experiments followed standard methods, including ISO 6341:2012, Water Quality — Determination of the Inhibition of Mobility in Daphnia magna Straus (Cladocera, Crustacea) — Acute Toxicity Test, and the PHYTOTOXKIT Liquid Samples method. We tested Daphnia magna, a zooplanktonic organism widespread in lakes and streams and an important part of the aquatic food chain. In addition, three plant species—Sorghum saccharatum, Lepidium sativum, and Sinapis alba—were used to assess phytotoxicity.
Initial toxicity results for heterotrophic bacteria Daphnia magna showed that treated wastewater had lower Toxicity Units (TU) compared to untreated samples, indicating a reduced harmful impact on aquatic organisms after treatment. Furthermore, preliminary phytotoxicity results revealed that root and shoot growth inhibition was significantly higher in untreated wastewater than in treated samples.
These findings present an optimistic outlook, suggesting that our treatment system could effectively reduce the environmental toxicity of pharmaceutical wastewater. Moving forward, we plan to conduct further studies to quantify these results and explore the full potential of the treatment for reducing long-term environmental impacts.
Dicotyledon mustard (Sinapis alba) seeds were incubated at 25°C (+/- 1°C) for three days. At the end of the exposure period, a photo of the test plates was taken. Following this, we analyzed and measured the germinated seeds. First, we counted the number of germinated seeds, and then measured the root and shoot lengths of the germinated seeds using an image analysis program. Finally, we calculated the percentage effect of the spiked chemical on seed germination, as well as on root and shoot growth.
We are excited about what these results mean for minimizing the environmental impact of pharmaceutical industry wastewater disposal. Stay tuned for more updates as we continue pushing the boundaries of the detoxification of APIs in wastewater.
Our project’s 2nd newsletter is published. Check HERE for more.
