A new paper from ETERNAL authors at UKCEH reviews the state-of-the-art models used to predict the environmental fate and exposure of pharmaceuticals, focusing on sources, theoretical frameworks, comparative analyses of existing models, and factors such as polarity, metabolism, and breakdown processes, and goes on to identify current challenges and future directions in this field.

‘Advances and challenges in modelling the environmental fate and exposure of pharmaceuticals: a comprehensive review’ appears in the RSC’s Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts, and forms part of their Recent Review Articles themed collection.

Pharmaceutical contamination in the environment poses a global concern, raising questions about potential implications for both ecology and human health. Unravelling the fate and exposure of these contaminants is crucial, as it depends on various factors, including their physicochemical properties, metabolic pathways, breakdown processes, and environmental conditions. The authors hope that necessary improvements in current approaches identified in the review (more sophisticated mechanistic insights, enhanced data collection, and integration of machine learning methods) will significantly enhance predictive capabilities, supporting more accurate environmental assessments and better informed targeted mitigation strategies to safeguard ecosystems.

Read full open-access text at Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts now