Chapter 1. Some issues of general ecology

Advent of humans on Earth has predetermined development of the environment. For a long time, the man-made environmental impact was minor, as long as people were just a biologic species living on Earth and were subject to the same laws as other organisms.

With scientific and technical progress, the environmental impact from work activities of individuals became extremely notable.

Nowadays, work activities of individuals affect the environment to a greater extent and can cause unpredictable disastrous effects as large as complete destruction of life; and the entire world is focused on solution for ecological issues. We encounter them constantly, day by day; they are widely discussed by mass media and on TV: purity of air, purity of potable water, green products, changes in radiation background, etc.

Every professional pharmacist will have to deal with environmental problems one way or another. The objective of this course is to acquire theoretical and practical knowledge that is essential for successful solution of such tasks.

A number of terms used in daily life are more applicable when used scientifically. The term «ecology» was proposed in 1866 by German biologist Ernst Haeckel. Literally, ecology is the science of organisms in their natural habitat (from Greek «оіkos» — household, fatherland, and «logos» — study of). According to Haeckel, ecology is the science of the relations between organisms and the environment (V.F. Protasov, 1995).

Nowadays, «ecology» is the science studying the laws of existence, formation and functioning of biological systems of any level — from organisms to the biosphere, and their relations with external environment (V.F. Protasov, 1995).

As such, ecology is a theoretical foundation of the sustainable use by individuals of natural resources, a scientific foundation for development of a strategy and tactics of relations between the human society and nature.

The current state of ecology. Significance of ecological education and training

In the process of its development, ecology split into several scientific branches and disciplines depending on the object of study. The branches of ecology are presented in fig. 1.1.

Fig. 1.1. Branches of ecology

Pharmaceutical ecology is a part of applied ecology; its objective is to solve the problems arising in the process of pharmaceutical activities.

Currently, there are novel conditions in use and application of medicines, which allow considerably widening the scope of pharmaceutical ecology and including problems caused by active distribution and availability of medicines for the population, as well as by counterfeiting and production of low-quality medicines.

Overdosage, unjustified self-prescription, drug addiction and abuse, use by patients of counterfeit and low-quality medicines cause harm to health, give rise to a number of diseases, e.g. microelementosis, hypervitaminosis, etc.

Of note, production, storage, destruction, and unauthorized disposal of counterfeit products, which can contain unknown or uncontrolled biologically active chemical compounds, can cause huge damage to the environment. For instance, increased or non-claimed metals in a medicine can cause harm to the environment, even if disposed of in an authorized way. Unauthorized disposal is very dangerous, since then the environmental pollution is not only chemical, but also biological and microbiological in nature. It is also worth mentioning that stricter measures to fight counterfeit medications can result in increase in unauthorized destruction of counterfeit products and, thus, harm to the environment. Accumulation of medicines at homes, which are flushed or end at dumps after shelf life expiration date is also a source of harm.

The field of study of the pharmaceutical ecology also includes study of the interaction specifics, thus, of the use of medicines containing compounds, any overdosage of which causes negative effects for the body. Fluoride compounds are a good example. Low fluoride content in potable water is known to affect dental enamel; the risk of caries decreases with increasing concentration of fluoride in potable water to approximately 1 mg/L. However, further increase in fluoride concentration causes increase in the rate of dental fluorosis, bone changes (osteoarthritis deformans), growth retardation, renal and thyroid damage. These factors should be taken into account when using medicines containing fluoride compounds in the regions, where groundwater passes through fluoride apatites or other fluoride-containing minerals and where water sources can contain discharges from aluminium, glass and phosphoric fertilizer production (V.F. Protasov, 1995).

In addition, in case of medicines containing selenium and some other compounds, water quality should be taken into account.