The history of pharmaceutical sciences is an impressive success story. The products of the pharmaceutical industry help to maintain the modern way of living, and contribute to our high living standard and health. Today, proper and effective treatment of emissions and prevention of emissions into air, water and soil is in practice in developed countries and will hopefully day become commonplace around the world. It has been known since the turn of the twentieth century that pharmaceutical products themselves cause environmental pollution and that they may, due to their very nature, present a health risk for the consumer. These molecules end up in the environment, not because of improper use, but, paradoxically, because of proper use. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.