About the project CWPharma

CWPharma will give tools and recommendations to policy makers, authorities and municipalities on the best ways to reduce emissions of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) in the Baltic Sea Region. The project focuses on filling the gaps of knowledge identified in, e.g. the status report of UNESCO and HELCOM on pharmaceuticals in the Baltic Sea (2017), and strives to increase the awareness of policy-makers, regulators and permitting authorities on environmental risks, implementation of the emission reduction schemes, and eventually decreasing the emissions of APIs into the Baltic Sea Region environment.

Screening of a wide range of APIs will be performed in six river basin districts to get a more complete picture of sources, emissions and environmental concentrations of APIs. Based on the data from case studies and literature, the overall emissions of APIs and their impact on the environment in the BSR will be assessed.

Different emission reduction measures will be evaluated by CWPharma. They include advanced municipal wastewater treatment, improved take-back schemes and disposal for unused medicines, dissemination of environmental data on pharmaceutical products, and environmental permitting of pharmaceutical plants. The best existing practices of the partner countries will be shared to promote the sustainable management of APIs in the Baltic Sea Region.

The project outputs will help a large number of stakeholders ranging from wastewater treatment plant operators and doctors to local, regional, national and even EU authorities to reduce API emissions to the environment.

The project outputs include:

• estimation of current API emissions for the Baltic Sea Region
• guidelines on advanced wastewater treatment to remove APIs
• recommendations on low-tech practices to control and reduce API emissions
• overall plan for the best emission reduction measures

The results will be shared via dialogue, training and guidance with target groups in the partner countries during project implementation, and in the final conference, which will ensure the efficient utilization and replication of the results.