Antibiotics have saved thousands of lives ever since Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin. However, due to human negligence and big pharmaceutical companies' mismanagement of their resources and waste, these drugs that save lives are coming back to bite us.
In an ironic twist, because of wastes leaking out from drug manufacturers among other things, the world's rivers are being contaminated with antibiotic waste, at alarming levels.
A new study, presented on May 27 at the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry conference in Finland, revealed that hundreds of other rivers are also contaminated with antibiotics, often at unsafe levels.
In total, researchers found antibiotics at more than 450 testing sites across 72 countries—65% of the 711 sites tested. Some 111 of the sites with antibiotics had unsafe levels, and the most concerning locations were in Asia and Africa.
(Image credit: Quang Nguyen Vinh/Pexels)
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Do not pee in the river
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I think we still haven't realized how many of our resources are non renewable.
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