Adopting eco-pharmacovigilance practices to reduce risks posed by disinfectants in the environment: Possibility and challenges

With the increasing availability and use of sanitary disinfection products, the environmental loads, potential risks, and control strategy for disinfectants as emerging contaminants (ECs) have attracted great attention globally. Eco-pharmacovigilance (EPV) has been conceptually interpreted as the science and activities related to the detection, assessment, understanding, and prevention of adverse effects of pharmaceuticals in the environment. EPV is demonstrated to be a valuable strategy for risk evaluation and source control of pharmaceuticals as ECs. Retrospective re-analyses of original survey data from published literature by the study team, through re-grouping the participants according to their experience of participating in the EPV intervention, showed that the participants having experience with EPV might exhibit significantly enhanced perceptions and attitudes toward environmental issues associated with disinfectants and their source control, suggesting possibility of adopting EPV practices to control disinfectant pollution. This study also compared disinfectants and pharmaceuticals in the environment and identified similarities in contaminant type, environmental risks, anthropogenic source, primary routes of entrance into the environment, and regulation system, which were highly supported by majority EPV participants. Therefore, the environmental issues of disinfectants as ECs might be addressed by adopting EPV practices as upstream solutions, such as avoiding misuse and overuse of disinfection products, green alternatives, take-back and management of unused disinfectants. However, undefined sources, pathways, fate, and limited eco-toxicological data of disinfectants as ECs, lack of disinfectant use standards and regulation considering environmental impacts, the necessity of multidisciplinary involvement and multi-sectoral regulation, and poor public awareness are major challenges.