Facilities involved in the manufacture of pharmaceutical products are an under-investigated source of pharmaceuticals to the environment. Between 2004 and 2009, 35 to 38 effluent samples were collected from each of three wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in New York and analyzed for seven pharmaceuticals including opioids and muscle relaxants. Two WWTPs (NY2 and NY3) receive substantial flows (>20% of plant flow) from pharmaceutical formulation facilities (PFF) and one (NY1) receives no PFF flow.

A green-house experiment on three sub-tropical semi-arid soils was conducted to investigate the effect of different sludge types of coca-cola soft drink industry viz. water treatment plant sludge (WTS), effluent treatment plant sludge (ETPS) and filter cake sludge (FCS) applied @1.0, 2.0 and 4.0 per cent on dry matter yield and heavy metal content in Palak.