“…Analgesics, antibiotics and NSAIDs were among the therapeutic groups with highest contributions to the total load of pharmaceuticals originating from hospital effluents, corresponding to 51, 41 and 32%, respectively. In fact, more pronounced contributions were described in literature for antibiotics (Beier et al, 2011;Ort et al, 2010;Thomas et al, 2007;Verlicchi et al, 2012a), reaching, in some cases, contributions as high as 272% (ciprofloxacin) (Thomas et al, 2007), 94% (clarithromycin) (Beier et al, 2011) or 67% (azithromycin) (Verlicchi et al, 2012a). On the other hand, for some of the most consumed analgesics/NSAIDs (for instance, ibuprofen, diclofenac or acetaminophen) hospital contribution reported in literature did not exceed 15% (Beier et al, 2011;Langford and Thomas, 2009;Thomas et al, 2007;Verlicchi et al, 2012a), which is in agreement with our results in what concern to ibuprofen and diclofenac (contribution up to 4.2 and 9.5%, respectively) (data not shown), however for acetaminophen, the contribution of university and general hospitals went to 483 and 115%, respectively (data not shown).…”