antibiotic pollution causes inadvertent antimicrobial resistance throughout the environment - https://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/feature/the-bacteria-on-your-beaches/
The discovery of antibiotics, specifically penicillin, can be looked at as one of the most important milestones in all of medical history. But there's a flipside to the marvel of antibiotics. Everyone has heard about how important it is to make sure to finish your antibiotic prescription for that pesky sinus infection. Everyone has also at one point looked at a food label that reads " No Antibiotics/Antibiotic Free". Yes, if antibiotics are accidently ingested or if antibiotic prescriptions are not finished, the potential for antibiotic resistant bacterial growth increases. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 23,000 people die from infections that are resistant to antibiotics every year. These antibiotics eventually make their way into environments, becoming catalysts for antibiotic resistant microbial growth which threatens the health of ecosystems and its organisms. Researchers have recently looked into sustainable forms of biochar as a possible solution to help reduce antibiotic pollution.
There are basically 2 approaches in which antibiotics can be removed from the environment: destructive methods and nondestructive methods. Destructive methods of antibiotic removal include chemical methods such as chlorination. Nondestructive methods include physical methods such as filtration and adsorption. Adsorption is a particularly common method of antibiotic extraction from the environment, and adsorption is also the mechanism that is utilized by biochar to remove antibiotics from its surrounding environment. The process of adsorption is effective, cheap, and simple. Which is why sustainable forms of biochar are such an attractive solution for combatting antibiotic pollution. Biochar is an organic substance similar to coal that is made by burning forestry and agricultural waste through a process called pyrolysis. Biochar is often used as a fertilizer or soil additive. Activated carbon is another medium that uses adsorption to remove antibiotics from an environment. Biochar is cheaper when compared to activated carbon, and there are many different sustainable sources from which a biochar can be produced. Researchers were able to create biochar from municipal solid waste and used tea bags, among many other sustainable sources (feedstocks). The sustainability of a biochar can vary based on the feedstock used to produce the biochar, as well as other factors such as the efficiency of the equipment use to produce the biochar or the efficiency of the vehicles used to transport the biochar. Different types of biochars can also be designed to be more adsorptive towards certain antibiotics.
Prevention of antibiotic pollution will become more important as the world population continues to grow. As scientists continue to find sustainable ways of combatting pollution, methods such as sustainable biochars are now an economic way for countries around the world to protect against antibiotic pollution.
Yorumlar