Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) are man-made goods used for personal hygiene, health, cosmetics or agribusiness. PPCPs often are detected in both treated and untreated wastewater effluent and are of growing ecological concern. Many PPCPs persist when released to the environment, and their removal from wastewater is difficult and expensive.
 
Sources of PPCPs include human biological waste, expired medications (toilet and trash),  veterinary and agricultural practices  and industrial discharges from their manufacture. Examples of PPCPs of environmental concern are antibiotics,  musk-based  fragrances and sunscreen ingredients. Trace chemicals associated with each have been detected in fish and other aquatic species downstream from wastewater discharges.
 
Some scientists believe the risk from PPCPs is minimal because the concentrations typically are very low. One study likened drinking two liters of ibuprofen-contaminated water, daily for 70 years, to the ingestion of a single tablet of Advil. Other scientists are more concerned because of the unproven effects of long-term exposure in terms of hormone production and genetic adaptation. It is possible that more drug-resistant diseases will develop in an environment rife with traces of antibiotics and other medications.
 
In the United States, PPCPs, including endocrine disruptors, have been of greatest concern in western states because of arid conditions. Even here in the east, PPCPs are of growing regulatory concern.  An ALWI municipal client in Maryland recently faced extensive PPCP study requirements to gain approval to use a new municipal water source, which might have contained some measure of wastewater effluent.