Europe’s Declaration on Pharmaceuticals in the Environment

CCB • November 17, 2017

20 Organisations sign declaration expressing serious concern about pharmaceuticals in the environment in the EU

17th November 2017
Brussels

A group of twenty organisations – lead by Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) Europe – today sent a Declaration to European Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Karmenu Vella, expressing their deep concern about the threat posed by pharmaceuticals in the environment to  European citizens, their communities, and the environment. The Declaration comes during World Antibiotic Awareness Week and on the eve of European Antibiotic Awareness Day.

The consortium of organisations, which is made up of hospitals, health organisations, professional health and student associations, and health and environment NGOs, wrote to the Commissioner to highlight the importance of introducing ambitiouslegislation in the upcoming Strategic Approach to Pharmaceuticals in the Environment (due to be released in early 2018).

The Declaration also highlights the unintended consequences of the release of increasing amounts of pharmaceuticals into the environment on both human and environmental health.
Pharmaceuticals in the environment represent a global pollution – over 631 different pharmaceutical agents or their metabolites have been detected in 71 countries on all continents.
The European Union is one of the largest consumers of human medicinal products in the world (24% of the global production), second only to the U.S. Pharmaceutical pollution, however, is an unrestricted cross-border phenomenon that affects all countries.

Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs, the part of the medicine that is biologically active in order to have an effect on the body) are designed to be biologically active and often remain unchanged during their passage through the body. These APIs can also enter the environment during the production phase (through wastewater) and when medicines are disposed of incorrectly (by flushing down the toilet or sink).

Even low concentrations of pharmaceuticals in the environment can have farreaching effects on ecosystems – causing reproductive failure, growth inhibition, behavioural changes, and species’ population collapse, such as the near extinction of vultures feeding on animals that have been treated with diclofenac in Pakistan.

As well as outlining the problems associated with pharmaceuticals in the environment, the group also propose solutions in the Declaration, in the form of a comprehensive set of policy recommendations, stating that: “We, the undersigned, strongly believe that [these] recommendations should be incorporated into the ‘Strategic Approach to Pharmaceuticals in the Environment’. EU citizens have the right to live in a safe environment in order to prevent sickness and the spread of AMR. We therefore call on the European Commission to consider our position on this issue and take immediate action to protect human and environmental health.”

Speaking of the Declaration, HCWH Europe Executive Director Anja Leetz said: “Pharmaceuticals in the environment are a global pollution problem which needs to be addressed immediately. By allowing this known problem to continue we are running a global experiment with no control group. We do not know enough about the long-term and cumulative cocktail effects of small amounts of pharmaceutical residues in our water and food supply and we need to apply the precautionary principle and reduce exposure where possible. We urgently need to minimise the release of pharmaceuticals into the environment at all stages of their life cycle in order to limit the potential damage to human or environmental health.”

Read Europe’s Declaration on Pharmaceuticals in the Environment here

The Declaration is co-signed by:
• Aarhus University Hospital (Denmark)
• Doctors for the Environment (AEFU) (Switzerland)
• Aufbruch – anders besser leben (Germany)
• Comité pour le Développement Durable en Santé (C2DS) (France)
• Center for Environmental Solutions (Belarus)
• Changing Markets
• Coalition Clean Baltic
• European Environmental Bureau (EEB)
• European Public Health Alliance (EPHA)
• European Academy for Environmental Medicine (Germany)
• Fundación Alborada (Spain)
• Health Action International (HAI)
• Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL)
• Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) Europe
• International HCH and Pesticide Association (IHPA)
• IndyACT (Lebanon)
• IPEN (Toxics-Free Network)
• The International Pharmaceutical Students Federation (IPSF)
• Ökologischer Ärztebund e.V. (ISDE Germany)
• Pestizid Aktions-Netzwerk (PAN Germany)

PRESS CONTACT
Aidan Long, Press and Communications Manager – HCWH Europe
Email: aidan.long@hcwh.org
Phone: +32 465 10 09 40

Further information from CCB is availiable from
Eugeniy Lobanov, CCB Working Area Leader for Hazardous Substances and Marine Litter
Email:  lobanow@gmail.com ;  lobanow@ecoidea.by

 

Don't reopen the EU Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). Implement it.

By CCB • June 15, 2026
The European Commission's evaluation confirms what environmental NGOs across Europe have long argued: the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP)'s challenge is not its design, but its implementation.

Joint NGO recommendations on Baltic Sea fishing opportunities for 2027

By CCB • June 10, 2026
The poor status and decline of many Baltic Sea fish populations have been thoroughly documented over several decades, indicating that the entire ecosystem is in great distress. So far, policy interventions have not reversed, or even halted, the negative trend concerning many of these populations. The European Commission itself recently recognised in its Common Fishery Policy (CFP) evaluation report that progress on stock rebuilding is lacking and the number of stocks “ threatened by collapse due to impaired recruitment has increased during the reporting period ”. Fish populations that once formed the cornerstone of the Baltic Sea fishery, such as the eastern and western Baltic cod and the western Baltic herring, are now doing so poorly that the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) is advising zero catch for these stocks. Yet, even with the targeted fishery being closed for some years now, none of these three stocks are showing sufficient signs of recovery. The condition (such as size and weight-at-age) of many flatfish populations, such as plaice, also raises alarm bells. The salmon spawning migration has fallen short of the target level in the past three years5. As a result, even the healthiest salmon stocks are now unlikely to produce enough smolts corresponding to sustainable levels in the coming years. To address the crisis facing Baltic populations and the broader ecosystem, political will and ambition to improve fisheries management, alongside full implementation of the CFP provisions, are needed. The recent INI report on the Baltic Sea Multi-Annual Plan shows that the European Parliament recognises the importance of ecosystem-based fisheries management as well as the need for consideration of environmental legislation when making decisions on fishing opportunities.6 Fisheries managers must now act swiftly and decisively on the commitment the Commission and Baltic Sea Member States made at last year’s October Agrifish Council to rebuild Baltic Sea stocks. This document presents the joint NGO recommendations regarding Baltic Sea fishing opportunities for 2027, prioritising long-term ecosystem health and sustainable fisheries management over short-term economic interests. The recommendations are based on the ICES advice, the objectives and requirements of the CFP8 and the Baltic Multiannual Plan (MAP), specifically to apply the precautionary approach and implement an ecosystem-based approach to fisheries management, and the objective of achieving Good Environmental Status (GES) under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). Last year’s overarching joint Briefing Series on TAC-setting, co-signed by almost 30 organisations across the EU and the UK, including environmental NGOs, recreational fishers, and fishing rights owners, remains valid and provides further context, background and detailed explanations on the cross-cutting issues raised in this document. Read the Joint NGO recommendations on Baltic Sea fishing opportunities for 2027 here .