New Antibiotic Resistance and Pollution Concern: Drugs Can Pass Through Your Body Almost Intact
What in the world….. isn’t it bad enough all the havoc antibiotics can reek on the body…. now they are polluting our rivers and streams too? Yikes!
Up to 90 percent of a swallowed antibiotic passes through your body without being metabolized. Excreted antibiotics can then enter stream and river environments.
This is a potential source of antibiotic resistance genes. The presence of antibiotics, even at low concentrations, can stimulate bacterial metabolism and contribute to the selection of antibiotic resistance genes.
According to Science Daily:
“… [A] study … identified three wastewater treatment plant sites, six animal feeding operation locations, and three additional locations … [The] findings showed detection of one particular antibiotic resistance gene in 100 percent of the treatment plant and animal feeding operations, but only once in the clean section of the Poudre River.”
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