Environmental Sustainability Assessment of Pharmaceuticals: Time to Acknowledge Pollution
Thornber, Kelly Pfleger, Sharon Moermond, Caroline Snape, Jason Hehenkamp, Wouter Ragas, Ad Kirchhelle, Claas Vinkers, Christiaan H Luykx, Jurjen Boxall, Alistair
Thornber, Kelly
Pfleger, Sharon
Moermond, Caroline
Snape, Jason
Hehenkamp, Wouter
Ragas, Ad
Kirchhelle, Claas
Vinkers, Christiaan H
Luykx, Jurjen
Boxall, Alistair
Series / Report no.
Open Access
Type
Article
Language
en
Date of publication
2025-10-06
Year of publication
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Title
Environmental Sustainability Assessment of Pharmaceuticals: Time to Acknowledge Pollution
Translated Title
Published in
Environ Sci Technol Lett 2025; 12(10):1273–1275
Abstract
Across their life cycle, pharmaceutical supply, use and waste management processes generate considerable greenhouse gas (GHG) and chemical pollution emissions. Yet, a new pharmaceutical environmental sustainability assessment (ESA) standard being developed will be focused almost entirely on GHG emissions, largely ignoring chemical pollution. This means that organizations across the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors using this standard for future pharmaceutical environmental sustainability decision-making and reporting may not account, or be held accountable, for their chemical pollution footprint.
Here, we call for urgent action in the development and implementation of more progressive and inclusive pharmaceutical ESA tools.