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61,005 resultsShowing papers similar to The Role of Wastewater Treatment Plants in Dissemination of Antibiotic Resistance: Source, Measurement, Removal and Risk Assessment
ClearImpact of wastewater treatment plant effluent discharge on the antibiotic resistome in downstream aquatic environments: a mini review
This review summarizes how wastewater treatment plants release antibiotic-resistant bacteria and resistance genes into rivers and lakes through their treated water. Current treatment processes cannot fully remove these resistance factors, allowing them to spread in downstream water bodies and potentially reach humans through drinking water and the food chain. The review is relevant to microplastics research because microplastics in wastewater can serve as surfaces where resistant bacteria grow and spread.
Antibiotic resistance fate in the full-scale drinking water and municipal wastewater treatment processes: A review
This review examines how antibiotic-resistant bacteria and resistance genes move through drinking water and wastewater treatment processes, finding that conventional treatment does not fully eliminate resistance. Microplastics in water systems act as surfaces that harbor and potentially transfer antibiotic resistance genes, making microplastic removal from water treatment an important co-benefit for antibiotic resistance management.
Microplastics and Antibiotic Resistance: The Magnitude of the Problem and the Emerging Role of Hospital Wastewater
This review examines how microplastics in water can carry antibiotic-resistant bacteria and spread resistance genes, especially through hospital wastewater. Microplastics provide a surface where bacteria easily form colonies and share resistance genes, creating a potential threat to human health. The authors call for better wastewater management to reduce this emerging risk.
Research progress on the origin, fate, impacts and harm of microplastics and antibiotic resistance genes in wastewater treatment plants
This review explores how microplastics and antibiotic resistance genes interact in wastewater treatment plants, where they can survive treatment and enter the environment together. The concern for human health is that these contaminants can travel through the food chain, potentially increasing illness from antibiotic-resistant infections.
On the Generation, Impact and Removal of Antibiotic Resistance in the Water Environment
This review explains how antibiotic resistance develops and spreads through water environments — including rivers, groundwater, and wastewater. The findings are relevant to microplastics because plastic particles in water are known to accumulate antibiotic-resistant bacteria, potentially accelerating the spread of drug resistance through aquatic systems.
Contribution of microplastic particles to the spread of resistances and pathogenic bacteria in treated wastewaters
Researchers studied microplastic particles collected from treated wastewater effluents and found that MPs harbored significantly higher loads of antibiotic resistance genes and pathogenic bacteria compared to surrounding water, suggesting MPs facilitate their environmental spread.
Flushed and Forgotten: Antimicrobial Resistance from Wastewater Perspective
This review examines antimicrobial resistance in wastewater streams, covering the role of microplastics as vectors for resistance genes and bacteria, and discussing treatment strategies to reduce the release of resistant organisms from wastewater facilities into aquatic environments.
Microplastic biofilms in water treatment systems: Fate and risks of pathogenic bacteria, antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and antibiotic resistance genes
This review examines how microplastics in drinking water and wastewater treatment plants develop biofilms that harbor dangerous bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes. The biofilm-coated microplastics can protect pathogens from disinfection processes, allowing them to survive treatment and potentially reach tap water. This raises concerns about microplastics serving as vehicles for antibiotic-resistant bacteria in our water supply.
Microplastics shape microbial interactions and affect the dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes in different full-scale wastewater treatment plants
A study of three full-scale wastewater treatment plants found that microplastics were associated with increased spread of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), with microplastic surfaces appearing to facilitate microbial interactions that promote ARG transfer. This is a significant public health concern because wastewater plants that fail to fully remove microplastics may also be inadvertently accelerating the dissemination of antibiotic resistance into receiving waterways.
Interactions of microplastics, antibiotics and antibiotic resistant genes within WWTPs
This review examined the interactions between microplastics, antibiotics, and antibiotic resistance genes within wastewater treatment plants, analyzing how MPs serve as carriers for antimicrobial compounds and facilitate the spread of resistance in microbial communities.
The dangerous transporters: A study of microplastic-associated bacteria passing through municipal wastewater treatment
This study characterized bacterial communities attached to microplastics sampled from multiple stages of a municipal wastewater treatment plant, finding that diverse bacteria including potential pathogens and antibiotic-resistant strains remained attached to microplastics through all treatment steps. The results suggest microplastics could transport hazardous bacteria through wastewater treatment and into receiving environments.
The impact of microplastics on the efficacy of urban wastewater treatment processes
This review summarizes how microplastics affect the performance of wastewater treatment plants, finding that while plants can remove up to 99% of microplastics, the particles that remain can disrupt the biological treatment process itself. Microplastics alter the microbial communities that break down waste, potentially reducing the plant's ability to remove other pollutants including antibiotic-resistant bacteria. This means microplastics not only pass through treatment into waterways but may also make treatment less effective overall.
Dissemination Of Antibiotic Resistance Via Wastewater And Surface Water
This review examined how antibiotic-resistant bacteria spread through wastewater and surface water, noting that microplastics in wastewater can carry resistant bacteria into the environment. Antibiotic resistance is a growing public health crisis, and plastic pollution is one pathway accelerating its spread in waterways.
Antibiotic resistance genes and virulence factors in the plastisphere in wastewater treatment plant effluent: Health risk quantification and driving mechanism interpretation
Researchers found that microplastics in treated wastewater carry significantly more disease-causing bacteria, antibiotic resistance genes, and virulence factors on their surfaces compared to the surrounding water. This means microplastics released from wastewater treatment plants into rivers and lakes could spread antibiotic-resistant infections, posing a direct risk to communities that rely on these water sources.
Diversity of antibiotic resistance gene variants at subsequent stages of the wastewater treatment process revealed by a metagenomic analysis of PCR amplicons
Not relevant to microplastics — this study uses next-generation sequencing to catalog antibiotic resistance gene variants at different stages of a wastewater treatment plant, finding that some variants change in abundance through the process while novel variants are present throughout.
Microplastics exhibit accumulation and horizontal transfer of antibiotic resistance genes
Researchers investigated whether microplastics in wastewater treatment plants can accumulate and spread antibiotic resistance genes. They found that bacteria growing on microplastic surfaces in treatment tanks harbored antibiotic resistance genes and transferred them at higher rates than bacteria in the surrounding water. This suggests microplastics in wastewater systems may serve as hotspots for spreading antibiotic resistance, posing potential risks to both ecosystems and human health.
Characterization of microplastics and their interaction with antibiotics in wastewater
Researchers characterized microplastics in wastewater and investigated their interactions with antibiotics, examining how microplastic surfaces adsorb antibiotic compounds and the implications for antibiotic transport and dissemination in wastewater treatment systems.
Growth and prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in microplastic biofilm from wastewater treatment plant effluents
Researchers studied antibiotic-resistant bacteria growing in biofilms on microplastic surfaces in wastewater treatment plant effluent. The study found that microplastic biofilms accumulated antibiotic-resistant bacteria including Pseudomonas, Aeromonas, and Bacillus, and that these biofilms harbored higher concentrations of resistance genes compared to surrounding water, suggesting microplastics may serve as reservoirs for antibiotic resistance.
Unveiling the Interactions Between the Antibiotic Resistome and Microplastics Influenced by Trace Elements and PPCPs in Wastewater Treatment Plants
Researchers monitored wastewater treatment plants containing microplastics, trace elements, and pharmaceutical/personal care products, finding that these co-occurring pollutants interact to influence the survival and spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and resistance genes through the treatment process.
From wastewater to sludge: The role of microplastics in shaping anaerobic digestion performance and antibiotic resistance gene dynamics
This review examines how microplastics in wastewater treatment plants affect the anaerobic digestion process used to break down sewage sludge, finding that certain plastic types can either boost or reduce biogas production depending on conditions. Importantly, microplastics increased the abundance of antibiotic resistance genes by up to 514%, raising serious concerns that wastewater treatment -- meant to protect public health -- may instead become a breeding ground for antibiotic-resistant bacteria when microplastics are present.
Microplastics in fresh- and wastewater are potential contributors to antibiotic resistance - A minireview
Researchers reviewed the link between microplastic pollution and the spread of antibiotic resistance in freshwater environments, finding that microplastic surfaces host unique bacterial communities enriched in antibiotic-resistant bacteria and the resistance genes they can share with other microbes. The close packing of bacteria in these plastic-surface biofilms may accelerate the spread of drug-resistant pathogens through drinking water sources, though the full health implications remain poorly understood.
Antibiotic resistant bacteria colonising microplastics in the aquatic environment: An emerging challenge
Researchers reviewed how microplastics in aquatic environments act as surfaces where antibiotic-resistant bacteria can grow and swap resistance genes with each other, raising concern that contaminated seafood and water could transfer these hard-to-treat bacteria to humans.
Fragmented Microplastics Synergize with Biological Treatment To Potentiate Antibiotic Resistance Dissemination during Sewage Treatment
Researchers used metagenomic sequencing and high-throughput qPCR across a full sewage treatment chain to show that fragmented microplastics preferentially concentrate clinically relevant antibiotic resistance genes, with MP-bound genes contributing up to 43% of intracellular resistance genes detected in treated effluent, and Acinetobacter emerging as a key resistance indicator.
The fate of microplastics in wastewater treatment plants: An overview of source and remediation technologies
This review examines how wastewater treatment plants serve as key pathways for microplastic entry into the environment, analyzing removal efficiencies across different treatment stages and identifying advanced technologies for improved microplastic remediation.