Millions of kilometers of rivers worldwide carry antibiotic pollution to levels high enough to promote drug resistance and damage aquatic life, warns a study led by the University of McGill.
Posted in PNAS NEXUSThe study is the first to estimate the global river pollution scale of the use of human antibiotics. The researchers estimated that around 8,500 tons of antibiotics, almost a third of what people consume annually, end in river systems around the world every year, even later, in many cases, through wastewater systems.
“While the amounts of individual antibiotic waste translate into very small concentrations in most rivers, which makes them very difficult to detect, chronic and accumulated environmental exposure to these substances can still represent a risk to human health and aquatic ecosystems,” said Helisa Ehalt Macedo, a postdoctoral fellow in geography in McGill and the plerara of the study.
The research team used a global model validated by field data of almost 900 locations of the rivers. They discovered that amoxicillin, the most used antibiotic in the world, is the most likely that it is present at risk levels, especially in Southeast Asia, where increasing use and limited treatment of wastewater amplify the problem.
“This study does not intend to warn about the use of antibiotics: we need antibiotics for global health treatments, but our results indicate that there may be unintended effects on aquatic environments and antibiotic resistance, which requires mitigation and management strategies to avoid or reduce their implications,” said Bernhard Lehner, a teacher in global hydrology in the gegoing department of gegography and co-co-author of the study of the geography of the study of studies.
The findings are especially notable because the study did not consider cattle antibiotics or pharmaceutical factories, which are the main taxpayers to environmental pollution.
“Our results show that antibiotic pollution in rivers that arise only from human consumption is a critical issue, which would probably be exacerbated by veterinary sources or the industry of related compounds,” said Jim Nicell, a professor of Environmental Engineering at McGill and co -author of the study. “Therefore, monitoring programs are needed to detect antibiotics or other chemical pollution of river pathways, especially in areas that our model predicts to be at risk.”