**5. Final Remarks**

A careful literature review was conducted in order to understand the sources, fate and occurrence of pharmaceuticals in the aquatic environment. In this context, a broad and specialized background was obtained, enabling a complete overview of the state-of-the-art in these subjects.

The data provided in this review evidenced that WWTPs are the major source of pharmaceuticals contamination. It is also noteworthy that pharmaceuticals belonging to the same therapeutic group can have distinct physicochemical properties, resulting in di fferent behaviours both in WWTPs and in the aquatic environment.

The concentrations of pharmaceuticals found in the aquatic bodies were, in decreasing order, WWIs, WWEs, surface water and other water bodies.

Overall, these results present a global picture of the pharmaceuticals' contamination, an important input for setting prioritizing measures and sustainable strategies to minimize their impact in the aquatic environment.

**Supplementary Materials:** The following are available online: Table S1: Physicochemical properties of the selected pharmaceuticals (adapted from Chemspider, Drugbank, Pubchem and ECOSARv1.11), Table S2: Occurrence of pharmaceuticals in wastewaters influents (WWIs), Table S3: Occurrence of pharmaceuticals in wastewater efluents (WWEs), Table S4: Occurrence of pharmaceuticals in surface waters (SWs) and Table S5: Occurrence of pharmaceuticals in seawaters (SeaW), groundwaters (GWs), drinking waters (DWs) and mineral waters (DWs).

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, A.P., L.S. and A.P.; methodology, A.P., L.S. and A.P.; formal analysis, A.P.; writing—original draft preparation, A.P.; writing—review and editing, A.P., L.S. and C.L. (Célia Laranjeiro); supervision, C.L. (Celeste Lino) and A.P. and project administration, A.P. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** The work was supported by UIDB/50006/2020, with funding from FCT/MCTES through national funds. **Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
