About 4000 medical compounds are being used in the drugs applied today. It is estimated that worldwide consumption of active compounds amounts to some 100 000 tons or more per year. Consequently, there is a need to highlight the most important questions and issues related to presence of pharmaceuticals in the environment. Pharmaceuticals in the Environment: current knowledge and need assessment to reduce presence and impact brings together results of previous and on-going EU projects with published data from both governmental sources and scientific literature and manufacturers' data on production and usage of pharmaceuticals. This book puts together the current knowledge and emphasises questions that deserve attention such as: * What is the spectrum of most relevant pharmaceutical products (PP's) for the aquatic environment? Which indicators for supporting environmental managers, health authorities? * What is the efficiency of urban and industrial sewage treatment plants over a year? What is the fate and behaviour of PP's in sewage treatment plants? If receiving waters are used for potable water supplies, does the presence of these compounds represent a potential hazard to human health? * Could we solve some problems by environmental or cleaner technologies? * What regulatory approaches, incentives, prevention actions can be implemented in order to lower PP's concentration in the environment? Does a European practical guidance can be developed? * Can the impacts of PPs on the environment be reduced through the use of eco-pharmaco-stewardship approaches including the use of clean synthesis, classification and labelling, and better communication of methods of 'good practice'? * How can we better monitor the environmental impact of a pharmaceutical once it has received a marketing authorisation?

Management of Emerging Public Health Issues and Risks: Multidisciplinary Approaches to the Changing Environment addresses the threats facing the rapidly changing world and provides guidance on how to manage risks to population health. Unlike conventional and recognized risks (major, industrial, and natural), emerging risks are characterized by low or non-existent scientific knowledge, high levels of uncertainty, and different levels of acceptability by the relevant authorities and exposed populations. Emerging risk must be analyzed through multiple and crossed approaches identifying the phenomenon linked to the emergence of risk but also by combining scientific, policy and social data in order to provide more enlightened decision making. Management of Emerging Public Health Issues and Risks: Multidisciplinary Approaches to the Changing Environment provides examples of transdisciplinary approaches used to characterize, analyze, and manage emerging risks. This book will be useful for public health researchers, policy makers, and students as well as those working in emergency management, risk management, security, environmental health, nanomaterials, and food science.