This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Pharmaceutical sewage chlorination may promote antibiotic resistance
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
The use of chlorine to disinfect pharmaceutical wastewater may contribute to environmental antibiotic resistance through the formation of new, unintended antibiotics, according to data recently presented at the National Meeting and Exposition of the American Chemical Society.
“Treated wastewater is one of the major sources of pharmaceuticals and antibiotics in the environment,” Olya Keen, PhD, of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, said in a press release. “Wastewater treatment facilities were not designed to remove these drugs. The molecules are typically very stable and do not easily get biodegraded. Instead, most just pass through the treatment facility and into the aquatic environment.”
Keen and colleagues examined the transformative effect of chlorination by exposing doxycycline to the common disinfectant. Products resulting from the interaction were separated and analyzed through high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. Additional assays were used to measure antibiotic resistance among the transformational products.
The researchers reported that these substances demonstrated antibiotic properties, some of which were stronger than doxycycline alone. These new products are likely persisting through sterilization and entering the environment, Keen said at the conference in Denver. As a result, they are harming aquatic life and contributing to the development of resistant microbes.
Other substances created through the exposure appeared to be novel antibiotics, Keen said, although this cannot be confirmed until each product has been fully identified.
“These transformation products may still select for antibiotic resistant micro-organisms in the environment even in the absence of the parent doxycycline molecule,” the researchers wrote. “This suggests that re-evaluation of wastewater disinfection practices may be needed.”
Reference:
Kennedy N, et al. Abstract 75. Presented at: National Meeting and Exposition of the American Chemical Society; March 22-26, 2015; Denver.
Disclosure: Infectious Disease News was unable to confirm Keen’s relevant financial disclosures.