Burden of Pharmaceutical Wastes in Soil: Sources, Behavior and Soil Health Implications- A Review

Soils are now an essential bin for medicinal waste emitted from homes, hospitals, livestock farms, and the pharmaceutical industry, making pharmaceutical pollution a serious environmental problem. Pharmaceutical residues, metabolites, and transformation products are frequently deposited into agricultural and natural soils through wastewater irrigation, sewage sludge application, manure from treated animals, landfill leachates, and industrial effluents due to the growing use of antibiotics, analgesics, hormones, antidiabetic drugs, and veterinary pharmaceuticals. Antibiotics such as tetracyclines, sulfonamides, fluoroquinolones, macrolides, and ionophores indicate strong sorption, high persistence, and varying mobility based on soil properties, according to evidence from recent studies. Despite the deliberate choice of resistant bacteria and antibiotic-resistant genes, these residues disrupt soil microbial populations, inhibit enzymatic processes, change nutrient cycling, and significantly contribute to the spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Additionally, a number of medications have phytotoxic effects, affect seed germination, and build up in edible plant tissues, threatening human health and food safety. Even veterinary medications have complex sorption–desorption behavior and can travel within soil profiles under specific conditions, according to research on substances like valinomycin. A developing One-Health issue that connects public health, agricultural production, and environmental quality is the presence of pharmaceutical residues in soil. Despite rising curiosity, major knowledge gaps exist regarding the long-term actions and dynamics of pharmaceutical wastes in soil, their integrated ecological implications, and the establishment of suitable soil-specific regulations and remediation mechanisms.