The superbacteria will not be created in the laboratory, but the trail leads to Asia anyway

As many as 8.5 thousand goes to rivers around the world. tons of antibiotics taken by people. Although the concentration of these substances is small, in the long term pollution can contribute to the formation of antibiotic -resistant bacteria.

According to scientists from McGill University (Canada), millions of kilometers of rivers around the world carry antibiotics in quantities that allow the formation of bacterial strains -resistant drugs.

The authors conducted the first study assessing the scale of global pollution of rivers with these compounds. According to their findings, as much as 8.5 thousand tons, which is about a third of antibiotics consumed by people annually, goes to rivers, often passing through treatment plants.

“Although the number of residues of individual antibiotics translates into very low concentrations in most rivers, which hinders their detection, a chronic and cumulative exposure of the environment to these substances can still pose a threat to human health and water ecosystems,” says Dr. Helois Ehalt Macedo, author of the study presented in the magazine “Pnas Nexus”.

The expert and her group moved data from 900 locations in various rivers. The most common substance was amoxicclin – the most commonly used antibiotic. Most could be found in the south of Asia, probably because of the growing use and deficiency of sewage treatment plants.

“The purpose of this study is not to comply with the use of antibiotics – we need them to treat health on a global scale. However, the results indicate that there may be unintentional effects appearing in water environments, including – regarding antibiotics resistance. This requires the development of strategy to relieve effects and manage these substances to avoid or reduce dangerous consequences” – says one of the researchers, prof. Bernhard Lehner.

The results are particularly important – scientists say – because the study did not include antibiotics from animal farming, or from pharmaceutical factories, which are the main sources of environmental pollution.

“Our results show that pollution of rivers with antibiotics resulting only from human consumption is a serious problem that would probably deteriorate through the sources related to veterinary or industry” – emphasizes one of the scientists, prof. Jim Nylll, cited on the university's website. – “Therefore, monitoring programs are needed that will detect pollution with antibiotics or other chemical substances in waters, especially in areas that our model indicates as threatened.”

Marek Matacz

mat/ zan/