Stewardship approaches to reducing healthcare contaminants

This chapter explores the role of stewardship in the reduction of environmental and human health risks from healthcare-specific contaminants in the environment, focusing in particular on pharmaceuticals. In the absence of a full understanding of environmental effects, stewardship approaches have much to offer and can be applied along the entire life cycle of a drug, from design to its release into the environment. Whilst ‘green pharmacy’ appears a worthwhile pursuit in the long term and advanced wastewater treatment technologies are increasingly being considered, it is in particular in the healthcare domain that stewardship – both as stewardship towards one’s own health and through discerning use of pharmaceuticals – has the potential to deliver positive environmental, health and financial outcomes. Whilst environmental stewardship of pharmaceuticals can be driven by policy, education, and facilitation, a re-examination of our attitude to health and our relationship with pharmaceuticals is required to curb the trend of ever-increasing use of medicines.