antibiotic pollution
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Antibiotic Pollution Of Waterways May Create Superbugs Of Tomorrow
A team from Macquarie University has proved for the first time that even low concentrations of antibiotics are polluting waterways, according to a study published today in Frontiers in Microbiology. Using low, realistic concentrations of antibiotics that might be found in waste water, the team showed a series of worrying effects on both environmental and clinical bacteria, including rearrangements of the bacterial DNA, changes in the colonies that the bacteria form, and most importantly, the evolution of antibiotic-resistant strains.
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How Antibiotic Pollution Of Waterways Creates Superbugs
Humans pollute the world with many chemicals and some of these affect living things, even at very low concentrations. Endocrine-disrupting compounds, which interfere with hormones, are a good example, but recently more concern has been raised about pollution with antibiotics. The problem is that up to 80% of an antibiotic dose passes straight through the body. So most of the antibiotics used in medical treatment or during animal production may end up in waste water. And waste treatment plants generally don’t remove antibiotics very well. Antibiotic pollution also comes from spreading manure on crop land, or using sewage as fertilizer. Waste water released from hospitals and antibiotic production plants is another major source.
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Waste from Pharmaceutical Plants in India and China Promotes Antibiotic-Resistant Superbugs
Superbugs, disease-causing microbes that have mutated to become resistant to antibiotics, are a threat to the lives of hundreds of thousands of people today and many millions tomorrow. These organisms turn curable illnesses such as tuberculosis, gonorrhea, and pneumococcal pneumonia into deadly ones. This looming public health disaster has many causes. Overuse of antibiotics by humans and the routine use of antibiotics to help farm animals grow faster are key causes in the United States. One worrisome cause that has received virtually no attention until now is wastewater from drug manufacturing facilities in India and China, where a large portion of the world’s antibiotic supply is produced...
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