- Municipal, industrial and domestic wastewater are primary sources of emerging pollutants
- WHO has warned that antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest threats to global health
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More pollutants are emerging that poison the environment, UNEP has said in a new report.
The United Nations Environment Programme says municipal, industrial and increasingly domestic wastewater are primary sources of emerging pollutants.
The agency has raised concern that the list of compounds that qualify as emerging pollutants is getting longer.
The warning is contained a report titled, "Pharmaceuticals and personal care products in the marine environment: an emerging issue."
"Pharmaceuticals are intentionally designed to act in ways that make them more likely to be harmful when non-target organisms are exposed to them. They are increasingly present in wastewater and at dumpsites that can have adverse health effects," the report says.
It cites WHO warnings that antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest threats to global health, food security and development today.
A growing number of infections—such as pneumonia, tuberculosis, gonorrhea, and salmonellosis—are becoming harder to treat as the antibiotics used against them become less effective.
Antibiotic resistance occurs when bacteria change in response to the use of medicines.
Bacteria, not humans or animals, become antibiotic-resistant.
These bacteria may infect humans and animals, and the infections they cause are harder to treat than those caused by non-resistant bacteria.
Antibiotic resistance leads to longer hospital stays, higher medical costs and increased mortality.
Antibiotics are just one of a range of pharmaceuticals, personal care products or other environmental contaminants.
The primary sources are drugs excreted or disposed of into the domestic sewer system, leaching from landfills, hospital effluents and runoff from animal, livestock and aquaculture sites.
"Between 55 and 80 per cent of the active ingredients in pharmaceuticals are excreted either as unchanged substances, mixtures of metabolites,or conjugated with an inactivating compound,"the report says.
In Kenya, both medical and veterinary practice have contributed to resistance.
Empirical treatment of infections in the absence of susceptibility data is widely practised in hospitals.
Non-compliance and self-prescribing add to the problems faced by health workers. Antibiotics such as tetracycline, penicillins and chloramphenicol are widely available to the public at bus stops in most large towns or sold over the counter in many pharmacies.
The result of all this inappropriate use of antibiotics is predictable: most bacterial pathogens have become multi-resistant.
WHO says that while antibiotic resistance occurs naturally, misuse of antibiotics in humans and animals is accelerating the process.
The report says human urine and faeces containing some of the excreted substances are then carried through municipal sewage systems, and any that are not removed in wastewater treatment are discharged into local surface or groundwater.
"Personal care products are often directly released into the environment without passing through any sort of treatment process; lotions and creams wash off in bathing waters and fragrances and musks are sprayed into the air," the report says.
Discharges to air or land may still end up in surface or groundwater through runoff or deposition.
From there they may eventually be absorbed or consumed by aquatic life forms or sediments.
On May 27, researchers looked for 14 commonly used antibiotics in rivers in 72 countries across six continents. They found antibiotics at 65 per cent of the sites monitored.
The researchers found a concentrations of antibiotics in some of the world’s rivers exceed safe levels by up to 300 times.
The 34-page report says not much is known about specific impacts of pharmaceuticals and personal care product in the environment.
"However, the costs of removing pharmaceuticals from wastewater, or from banning their use without a reliable substitute, can be quite high,"the report says.
According to the report, densely populated cities where waste flows directly into nearby surface water are at great risk, as are developed nations where pharmaceutical use is significant and growing rapidly.
Even in remote areas, however, there is potential for exposure to emerging pollutants.
The persistent nature of many compounds means that they can be transported over long distances, and a diverse array of harmful substances disproportionate to the amount consumed locally have been reported in ecosystems of small island developing states.
This is true of pharmaceuticals and personal care products, micro plastics, heavy metals and more.
The report says more data is needed for meaningful action towards addressing the impacts of emerging pollutants.