Rosi
MILLBROOK – A report by a Millbrook-based Cary Institute aquatic ecologist finds that persistent pharmaceutical pollution in urban streams can cause aquatic microbial communities to become resistant to drugs.
Lead author Emma Rosi said wastewater treatment plants are not equipped to remove many pharmaceuticals.
“The fact of the matter is that pharmaceuticals and personal care products like antibiotics are getting into our rivers and streams and the microbes that live in the environment, very small fraction of which are pathogens, but the microbes that live in the environment that have the potential to develop a resistance to these antibiotics and other drugs and that is of concern,” she said.
The bottom line is don’t dump pharmaceuticals and personal care
products down the drain, said Rosi.
Rosi’s study was conducted in four streams in Baltimore, Maryland, but she said the findings are universally reflective.
