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Drug Pollution In Rivers Reaching Damaging Levels For Animals and Ecosystems, Scientists Warn (independent.co.uk)
pgmrdlm shares a report from The Independent: Medicines including antibiotics and epilepsy drugs are increasingly being found in the world's rivers at concentrations that can damage ecosystems, a study has shown. Dutch researchers developed a model for estimating concentrations of drugs in the world's fresh water systems to predict where they could cause the most harm to the food web. The study, published in Environmental Research Letters, focuses on two particular drugs: antibiotic ciprofloxacin and anti-epileptic drug carbamazepine. Between 1995 and 2015 it found that rising concentrations of the drugs and the increasing number of water tables affected meant the risks to aquatic ecosystems are 10 to 20 times higher than two decades earlier.
Carbamazepine has been linked to disrupting the development of fish eggs and shellfish digestive processes, and the study found potential risks were most pronounced in arid areas with a few major streams. The risks were much more widespread for ciprofloxacin, with 223 of 449 ecosystems tested showing a significant risk increase. More worrying still, when [the researchers] compared their predictions to samples from four river systems they found their model was underestimating the risk. Pharmaceutical residues can enter these fresh water systems through waste water from poorly maintained sewer systems, or from run-off over fields for drugs used in livestock.
Carbamazepine has been linked to disrupting the development of fish eggs and shellfish digestive processes, and the study found potential risks were most pronounced in arid areas with a few major streams. The risks were much more widespread for ciprofloxacin, with 223 of 449 ecosystems tested showing a significant risk increase. More worrying still, when [the researchers] compared their predictions to samples from four river systems they found their model was underestimating the risk. Pharmaceutical residues can enter these fresh water systems through waste water from poorly maintained sewer systems, or from run-off over fields for drugs used in livestock.
They have programs to incinerate (the only actual way to destroy these things) pills for free. People are simply too lazy to use them,
The situation is actually much more complicated than you're making it out to be. Some of these drugs can actually survive passing through sewage treatment, and treated sewage is generally discharged into waterways. That's why I brought up my particular anecdote — not only is that kind of behavior a hazard because of hazardous biologicals, it's also a problem because of persistent and stable pharmaceuticals.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Distinct problems that both contribute, and you just added a third now.
I never claimed my prior comment was an exhaustive list of the related issues. That's your [faulty] assumption, which makes an ass out of u, and umption.
You continue to conflate them, which is unsurprising at this point.
They are all contributory. This is not as complicated as you want to make it. I understand that you are playing the confused victim of a complicated conversation, but it's not that complicated. Anyone who can comprehend the ins and outs of a modern computer should be able to grasp these concepts adequately to have a conversation about them.
No, phage therapy does not solve all these problems
It would significantly reduce the amount of medication required, so while it might or might not solve the problem, it would assist in its mitigation.
I'm trying to be polite but you're grossly oversimplifying.
I'm trying to be polite, but you're grossly simple.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
To be precise, they do not adapt, they are just selected. Antibiotics resistant microbes were always there, but they were just a tiny portion of the overall population, before selection. We are just changing the characteristics of the population, not the characteristics of the individual microbes.
Considering that Antibiotic use for anything other than illness has been illegal for a long time, and it costs money, I think you're woefully misinformed in current day agricultural practice. Pesticides and fertilisers are sparingly used (and agriculture does a lot of research on the minimum spray doses they can use; after all, that costs money too).
So your 'we need is a prohibition on medicating animals that aren't sick' already exists.
That's a nice thought but it isn't the case in practice. There are many feedlots that feed all their animals CTC Crumbles for instance and I can tell you that inject able antibiotics are routinely used as a preventative and not to treat anything... you just need a vet signoff but when your business is feedlot beef, that is just paperwork. This is in the states. God knows what it is like in China.