The research led by Dr. John Wilkinson, the Global Monitoring of Pharmaceuticals Projects, uncovered staggering water pollution statistics stemming from pharmaceutical companies worldwide. The study is the first where the global scientific community came together to monitor the practices contributing to environmental issues. Two hundred fifty-eight rivers across the globe were studied for pollutants such as caffeine, metformin, and carbamazepine. The findings show the need to monitor countries in the lower levels of socioeconomic status as they tend to be the most significant contributor to pharmaceutical pollution. The project raises awareness of how countries contribute to pollution and the types of pollutants never before tracked. With this information, change can be instituted to disrupt these unsafe practices. 

This article brings up the point that poorer countries need significant support from advanced countries, especially in production and manufacturing. Global Monitoring of Pharmaceuticals Project promises to raise the awareness of these countries in need of better ways of production. It is sobering to see the data from the study, which confirms that lower socio-economic entities behave in destructive ways, which correlates to individuals suffering from lower socio-economic status. For example, they choose the easiest way to survive because they lack the resources to behave in ways that preserve well-being. Still, I hope this project can shed more light on countries that can benefit from a collaborative approach where sharing engineering best practices can lead them to clean up their act.