World's rivers 'awash with dangerous levels of antibiotics'

[lordsummerisle]

theguardian.com

Hundreds of rivers around the world from the Thames to the Tigris are awash with dangerously high levels of antibiotics, the largest global study on the subject has found.

Antibiotic pollution is one of the key routes by which bacteria are able develop resistance to the life-saving medicines, rendering them ineffective for human use. “A lot of the resistance genes we see in human pathogens originated from environmental bacteria,” said Prof William Gaze, a microbial ecologist at the University of Exeter who studies antimicrobial resistance but was not involved in the study.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/may/27/worlds-rivers-awash-with-dangerous-levels-of-antibiotics

[no_hypocrisy]

1. I can see why.

Pharmaceuticals in general cannot be "scrubbed" from waste water like bacteria. Every time you take a pill, whether it's medication or a supplement, it's in your urine. The residue from your pill is part of the water supply. I'm surprised nobody talks about birth control pills and estrogen and/or blood pressure medication, let alone antibiotics.

[NickB79]

3. People have been talking up birth control residues for a while

Just Google for 'intersex fish'; there have been a lot of studies finding serious issues with fish reproduction in recent years die to excess hormones in the water.

[democratisphere]

2. What a mess we have created for ourselves. The rivers empty into

the oceans contaminating one of our most important ecosystems and food supplies.

[appalachiablue]

4. Self-created mess is right, Rachel Carson first warned us

and look where things are now. ANIMAL AGRICULTURE methods also contribute, using massive doses of antibiotics for farm animals to fatten them up and ward off disease is dangerous.

[applegrove]

5. I know an environmental engineering student who is working on some sort

of filter to get meds out of treated sewage water. But that still leaves all of the untreated water around the globe.