The practices of Brazilian internet users on the environmental impacts associated with the use of medicines in the COVID-19 pandemic: are we practicing ecopharmacovigilance?

Abstract

Pharmaceutical contamination represents an environmental and public health threat. One of the sources of entry of these compounds into the environment is the disposal of expired or unused medicines. However, it is necessary to understand how the population recognize this problem to subsidize management actions on this theme. Mitigating and/or reducing the entry of pharmaceuticals into the environment is one of the main lines of action of the ecopharmacovigilance (EPV). Thus, the present study aimed to analyze the environmental habits of medicines disposal by Brazilian web users, in accordance with current legislation, as well as the environmental impacts resulting from pharmacological contamination, during the COVID-19 pandemic, besides evaluating the implementation of the EPV concept. An online questionnaire was developed on the Google Forms platform with 26 questions, and was disseminated for six months on social networks, websites, and emails. The sampling method used was the convenience. The results indicated the predominance of consumption of the pharmacological group associated with COVID-19 treatment. In addition, it was observed that most participants discarded medicines for human (62.0%) and veterinary (33.6%) use in common waste. Moreover, there was a concern among respondents regarding the occurrence of pharmaceuticals in the environment and their implications in different environmental matrices as well as in human health. Disseminating the current Brazilian legislation and improving the effectiveness of reverse logistics programs, as well as making society aware of the impacts associated with pharmaceuticals can help mitigate this environmental problem.