People in Kanpur have learnt patience from the Ganga which takes in all the effluence from the ever-growing illegal tanneries here. Neither of them ever had a choice.

The enormity of pollution due to pharmaceuticals in India has caught the attention of researchers all over the world. This was due to the near extinction of vultures in the Indian subcontinent in the 1990s caused by diclofenac and a recent study in 2007 by Swedish scientists on pharmaceutical effluents in Patancheru in Hyderabad. The massive outsourcing of pharmaceutical production by the west has made third world nations like India a victim of unbridled opportunism.

The water quality index (WQI) was calculated for the assessment of ground water quality near to the dye user industry. For the calculation of WQI physicochemical characteristics of groundwater near by dyeing-printing, pulp-paper and tanning industrial areas were studied.

At AstraZeneca we are proactively addressing the problem of pharmaceuticals entering the environment as a result of our
manufacturing discharges (Nature 476, 265; 2011). (Correspondence)

Facilities involved in the manufacture of pharmaceutical products are an under-investigated source of pharmaceuticals to the environment. Between 2004 and 2009, 35 to 38 effluent samples were collected from each of three wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in New York and analyzed for seven pharmaceuticals including opioids and muscle relaxants. Two WWTPs (NY2 and NY3) receive substantial flows (>20% of plant flow) from pharmaceutical formulation facilities (PFF) and one (NY1) receives no PFF flow.

Very high levels of a range of pharmaceuticals have been reported recently in the effluent from a wastewater treatment plant near Hyderabad, India. The plant serves approximately 90 manufacturers of bulk drugs that primarily are exported to the world market. Fluoroquinolone antibiotics were found at levels that are highly toxic to various microorganisms.

Discharges from pharmaceutical factories contaminate rivers on three continents.