ABSTRACT
The pharmaceutical industry manufactures biological products, medicinal chemicals, botanical
products, and the pharmaceutical products covered by Standard Industrial Classification Code
Numbers 2831, 2833, and 2834, as well as other commodities. The industry is characterized by a
diversity of products, processes, plant sizes, as well as wastewater quantity and quality. In fact,
the pharmaceutical industry represents a range of industries with operations and processes as
diverse as its products. Hence, it is almost impossible to describe a “typical” pharmaceutical
effluent because of such diversity. The growth of pharmaceutical plants was greatly accelerated
during World War II by the enormous demands of the armed forces for life-saving products.
Manufacture of the new products, particularly the antibiotics that were developed during World
War II and later periods, exacerbated the wastewater treatment problems resulting from this
industry. Industrialization in the last few decades has given rise to the discharge of liquid, solid,
and gaseous emissions into natural systems and consequent degradation of the environment [1].
This in turn has led to an increase in various kinds of diseases, which has necessitated the
production of a wide array of pharmaceuticals in many countries. Wastewater treatment and
disposal problems have also increased as a result. From 1999 to 2000, the U.S. Geological
Survey conducted the first nationwide reconnaissance of the occurrence of pharmaceuticals,
hormones, and other organic wastewater contaminants (OWC) in a network of 139 streams
across 30 states. The study concluded that OWC were present in 80% of the streams sampled.
The most frequently detected compounds were basically of pharmaceutical origin, that is,
coprostanol (fecal steroid), cholesterol (plant and animal steroids), N,N-diethyltoluamide (insect
repellant), caffeine (stimulant), triclosan (antimicrobial disinfectant), and so on [2].
