Biophotogenesis small series for you to sort out antibiotics in the environment related issues, I hope to help you!

1. Why are antibiotics detected in the environment?

Antibiotics are widely used in human medicine, animal disease control and prevention, crop and industrial applications. It is inevitable that these drugs enter the environment along with production and life, and as detection methods become more advanced, it is not surprising that antibiotics are found in the natural environment.

In addition, many microorganisms in the natural environment also produce antibiotics, such as penicillin, which is found in the metabolites of penicillium.

2. In which environments can antibiotics be detected?

According to the data of China, the United States, Canada, Australia, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, such as Japan and other countries, the composition of antibiotics can be detected in soil and sludge, wastewater, surface water, groundwater, drinking water, and this situation is widespread in all countries.

But concentrations of antibiotics in the environment are generally very low, typically around one-eleventh in water.

3. Can antibiotic ingredients in the environment degrade naturally?

According to the Technical report of the World Health Organization, the vast majority of drugs in the water environment are naturally degraded at concentrations such as adsorption to sediment, sunlight degradation and biodegradation. Treatment of drinking water and wastewater can also reduce antibiotic concentrations.

In addition, under appropriate composting conditions, the composting process of livestock and poultry manure can also effectively reduce the concentration of antibiotics in feces and minimize the impact on the environment.

4. Whether trace antibiotics in drinking water will harm health?

The world health organization released "drug residues in drinking water," technical report points out: to detect the drug concentration in drinking water by several orders of magnitude lower than the minimum therapeutic dose (usually low more than 1000 times, and often well below the 1000 times), the very low concentration of drug residues the possibility of harm to human body health is very low.

For example, according to media reports, amoxicillin was found in tap water at 8 ng/l, which means you need to drink more than 5 tons of water a day to be at risk.