Good practices for take-back and disposal of unused pharmaceuticals in the Baltic Sea region. Clear Waters from Pharmaceuticals (CWPharma) Activity 4.1 Report

Appropriate collection and disposal of medicine-related waste has been identified as one of the main ways to decrease the emission of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) into the environment. Improvement to the take-back and treatment of collected pharmaceutical waste may be considered low-hanging fruit when one is considering measures to reduce API emissions. However, comparable information that would enable estimating the potential impact of these efforts has not been available. Directive 2004/27/EC, related to medicinal products for human use, mandates that EU member states implement appropriate collection schemes for unused or expired human-use medicinal products. However, it does not provide any guidelines on practical implementation of these schemes. Several studies have pointed out significant differences among Member States in this regard. In March 2019, the European Commission published the European Union Strategic Approach to Pharmaceuticals in the Environment. The actions specified therein cover all stages of the pharmaceutical life cycle, from design and production to disposal and waste management. It emphasizes such elements as sharing good practices, co-operating at international level, and improving understanding of the risks. This report is aimed at filling knowledge gaps and proposing good practices for take-back and disposal of unused human and veterinary medicines and other pharmaceutical waste. The report is targeted to e.g. ministries, environment and medicines agencies, supervisory authorities, municipalities, hospitals, NGOs, pharmacists, doctors, and veterinarians. For the report, current national practices for take-back and disposal of unused medicines and other pharmaceutical waste in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, and Sweden were evaluated. The pharmaceutical waste originating from households, hospitals and other health care institutions, the pharmaceutical industry, and veterinary use was considered. The proportion of citizens who return unused pharmaceuticals via designated collection points varies greatly between Baltic Sea countries, from about 10% to 70%, with 16–80% disposing of them of as mixed household waste and 3–30% flushing them down the drain. The most commonly cited reason for improper disposal of medicines on households’ part is lack of information about their environmental impacts and how to get rid of them in an environmentally sound manner. Separate collection of unused household pharmaceuticals does not exist in Russia, and the collection mechanism functions poorly in Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. Information on the take-back schemes for unused human medicines is more readily available than is corresponding information on veterinary medicines. We identified, all told, 21 good practices and recommendations for take-back and disposal of unused pharmaceuticals and other pharmaceutical waste and for promoting the rational use of pharmaceuticals in the Baltic Sea region. Nevertheless, implementing them at national level requires particular consideration due to differences in national legislation and other characteristics of the EU Baltic Sea countries and Russia. The good practices identified in this report answer the call issued in the EU strategic approach for an efficient risk-reduction strategy

Geochemistry of the dust Collected by passive samplers as a tool for search of pollution sources: the case of Klaipėda port, Lithuania

Geochemical investigations of total suspended particulates (TSP) help detect hotspots and emission sources in port cities with stevedoring operations. The aim was to reveal these sources via geochemical indices (gI). TSP were collected in Klaipėda using original passive samplers in ten sites during four periods, during one of them, in ten additional sites near iron ore stevedoring (IOS). The contents of 22 elements (PHEs, crustal, Br, Cl) were determined by EDXRF in TSP and characteristic dust (CD) of stevedored iron ore, apatite, phosphorite, potassium fertilizers, and in waste incineration ash. Median Fe content in TSP near IOS was ~29%. The significant anthropogenic origin of clusters Fe–Cr, Sr–P, V–Ni–Zn–Cu, Pb–As, and Mg–Ca, Br–S–Cl was confirmed by gI mapping and analysis of CD. Significant temporal variability of Cl, S, Sr, Ni, Br, V, and Zn due to weather changes was revealed. Near IOS, significantly higher values of gI were found for Fe and Cr, while far from IOS, for K, Sr, Ti, Rb, Cu, Al, Si, Zr, Ca, Mg. Significantly higher values of normalized enrichment factor near IOS were not only for Fe and Cr, but also for As, Pb, S, Mn, Br, and Cl

Analysis of Cultural Heritage Alloy Reference Materials (CHARM) by two X-ray fluorescence spectrometers: results reliability assessment

This paper discusses the results of a large-scale analysis of the five Cultural Heritage Alloy Reference Materials (CHARM) standards for copper alloys by two X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometers in order to assess the reliability of the data. Hand-held portable (pXRF) and stationary energy dispersive (ED-XRF) spectrometers were used to investigate the elemental composition of the surfaces of the CHARM standards and their drilled samples (shavings). Our research show that the values obtained with both spectrometers are comparable to the standard values using a predictive model that adjusts the measurements to the specified standard values. XGBoost was chosen as the prediction algorithm. </p

Corded ware and contemporary hunter-gatherer pottery from Southeast Lithuania: Technological insights through geochemical and mineralogical approaches

A geochemical and mineralogical approach was used to analyze 3rd millennium BCE pottery from Southeast Lithuania that is attributed to the foreign Corded Ware Culture and local hunter-gatherers. SEM-EDS, XRF, XRD, and FTIR were used to study the peculiarities of the pottery and to develop hypotheses about the raw material and technology choices present. The amounts of ten major elements in the bulk and clay matrix compositions (XRF, SEM-EDS) and eleven trace analytes in the bulk compositions (XRF) were compared with the Clarke values and tested to highlight the significance (Mann–Whitney U and Wilcoxon Matched Pairs Tests) of the differences in the elemental quantities between the clay matrix and bulk compositions, and between the lighter and darker clay matrixes. These also revealed the advantage of Ward’s clustering method using the City-block distance of bulk compositions as a tool for inter-correlating ceramics in attributing them to specific communities and locations. The XRD, FTIR, and SEM-EDS mineralogical analyses indicated a predominance of iron-rich illite clay, quartz, and alkali feldspar, in addition to very low to medium firing temperatures. All of the pottery samples consisted of hydromicaceous clay from local Quaternary glacial sediments that contain weathered granitoid fragments