Antibiotics in the environment: causes and consequences

Abstract

Antibiotics represent one of the main discoveries of the last century that changed the treatment of a large array of infections in a significant way. However, increased consumption has led to an exposure of bacterial communities and ecosystems to a large amount of antibiotic residues.
 This paper aims to provide a brief overview of the primary drivers associated with antibiotic occurrence in the environment. Furthermore, we attempted to summarize the behavior of antibiotic residues in the environment and the necessity of their detection and quantification. Also, we provide updated scientific and regulatory facts about environmental antibiotic discharge and environmental and human antibiotics risk assessment.
 We propose that environmental antibiotic contamination should be diminished beginning from regulating the causes of occurrence in the environment (such as antibiotic consumption) and ending with regulating antibiotic discharge and risk assessment. Some important intermediate steps are represented by the detection and quantification of the antibiotics and the characterization of their behavior in the environment, which could come to support future regulatory decisions.

Knowledge gaps in the assessment of antimicrobial resistance in surface waters

“…The widespread use and misuse of antibiotics, especially through direct use in healthcare practice and in food animal production, along with the release of their residue concentrations from wastewaters to the environment represent major contributors to the acquisition and spread of antibiotic resistance (WHO 2014 ; O'Neill 2015 ; Kraemer, Ramachandran and Perron 2019 ; Polianciuc et al . 2020 ). With 700.000 deaths resulting from infections unresponsive to antibiotic therapies every year, the World Health Organization (WHO) included this phenomenon among the main threats to global health (WHO 2018a and 2020a ) and the number is estimated to reach 10 million by 2050 if no action to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is taken (UN 2019 ).…”

Antibiotics: An overview on the environmental occurrence, toxicity, degradation, and removal methods

“…To achieve the sustainable development, the future research directions are suggested as follows. (1) The development of analytical methods for the detection of a greater number of antibiotics and their TPs, in order to improve risk assessments and establish quality standards for antibiotics in the environment; (2) further toxicological studies must be performed on potential chronic effects of antibiotic mixtures and their degradation products at environment-related concentration; (3) understand better and deeper the toxicity of antibiotics toward non-target organisms by proteomic responses and gene expression study; (4) human health may be affected by the consumption of agricultural products polluted by antibiotics, more attention should be paid to the indirect effects of antibiotics caused by the drinking water and food chain; (5) further research is needed to evaluate the relationship between antibiotic contamination and the presence of ARGs/ARB in the environment; (6) elucidation of degradation products and their bioactivity needs to be further investigated; (7) develop efficient and low-cost treatment technology for controlling the emission of antibiotic contaminants.…”

Determination of antibiotic residues in milk and assessment of human health risk in Bangladesh

“…These residues might be present in different consumable food products of animal origin like milk, meat, egg and skin during the withdrawal period which is specific for different groups of antimicrobials [ 14 ]. Around 40–90 % of administered antibiotics is excreted through urine and feces as active form, leads to environmental contamination [ 15 ]. Some antimicrobials such as erythromycin, sulfamethoxazole, and tetracyclines can persist in soil and water for a period of more than a year [ 16 ].…”