Green Chemistry

Sustainable Pharmacy: Pharmacist

The University of Scranton

MGT501: Responsibility Sustainability and Justice

Professor Cynthia Cann

October 18, 2014

Green Chemistry –Green Pharmacy

My Future Profession: Pharmacist

As a future Pharmacist I will be communicating with patients and the health care system providers. I will be distributing prescription drugs to patients, advise them and health professionals on the side effects, interactions, and dosage of medications. Some Pharmacists specialize in various drug therapy areas, such as geriatric pharmacy, psychiatric pharmacy, nuclear pharmacy, or intravenous nutrition. Others may focus on formulating new medications and testing their effects for pharmaceutical manufacturers, sales and marketing companies, health insurance companies, government, and the armed services. (“U.S. News University Directory,”2010).

Current sustainability initiatives in Pharmacy

The life cycle of a pharmaceutical:

Synthesis

Synthesis

Manufacturing

Manufacturing

Packaging

Packaging

Raw materials

Raw materials

Design

Design

Treatment

Treatment

Disposal

Disposal

Use

Use

Distribution

Distribution

Selling

Selling

The huge role played by pharmacy in healthcare is unlimited, and can have too many consequences for people and environment health. These invisible roles involve a wide array of pathways that lead to unintended and perhaps unrecognized exposure, which serves to illustrate the interconnectedness of the activities and behaviors of humans with the environment. In the final analysis, human health and ecological integrity are intimately linked. Actions designed to maintain, alter or improve human health and wellbeing has consequences for the environment, which in turn can feed back to impact human health. (“K.Kummerer, M. Hempel,”2010).

Environmental Sustainability

Drug residues from both human and veterinary usage can impact the environment in many ways. They can...