R E P O R T - Green Foundation Ireland

This antibiotic pollution of the environment can lead to both ecological damage, and resistance development in environmental bacteria. [...] It covered how antibiotic pollution and bacterial resistance occurs, problems arising in Ireland and potential solutions to reducing pollution and resistance from developing. [...] Antibiotics are used in large quantities throughout the world in both human and animal healthcare, and the quantities used are growing globally, primarily for agricultural purposes and also medicinally in developing countries (although usage levels are static in the US and Europe). [...] Finally, where wastewater treatment plant sludge is used as fertiliser, which can often occur in Ireland, antibiotics are returned to the field via the sludge and in turn washed back into waterways. [...] Antibiotics in waterways can cause a number of problems including further development of antibiotic resistance in bacteria, allergic reactions and digestive issues (as they affect gut bacteria) for swimmers, can disturb the food chain due to growth of algae/cyanobacteria and interrupt photosynthesis.