Green Technologies for the Treatment of Pharmaceutical Contaminants in Wastewaters

The remarkable worldwide increase in the production and use of several pharmaceuticals, on one hand, brings advantages to modern society and, on the other hand, represents a hazardous risk to natural ecosystems. Pharmaceuticals are considered emerging contaminants of great environmental concern since its continuous disposal in the environment and high persistency can affect ecosystems and human life quality. In this context, the scientific community has addressed this problematic in several fronts investigating incidence, toxicological effects, and detection techniques to determine the real impact of the increase of its release as one of the challenges of the new millennia. The present chapter approaches the occurrence, and deleterious effects of these contaminants, as well as the alternative treatments developed to adequately remove them from natural water bodies and water streams.