Problems in our Environment
Some potential and real health issues which go unchallenged for now or are largely ignored. I read these articles and thought they may be interesting enough to be read at Angry Bear also. These are partials of longer commentaries. No so long as to give up on them halfway through them. Air and water pollution in addition to medically polluted food.
“Air pollutant linked to year-round respiratory health in Mississippi,”- University of Mississippi
University of Mississippi researchers have linked exposure to high levels of black carbon in the air to an increase in respiratory-related hospital admissions in Mississippi’s capital city, according to a study published in Environmental Pollution.
Courtney Roper, assistant professor of environmental toxicology, found in a 2023 study that Jackson’s air contains the state’s highest concentration of black carbon, commonly referred to as soot. In a new study published this summer, her team found that this pollutant may be contributing to a rise in hospital visits for respiratory issues among older adults. She said:
“We can see that there is a connection between respiratory issues—particularly for women—and these exposures. The thing that we, as Mississippians, can take right now from this research is that our environment impacts our health.”
Black carbon is a component of PM 2.5 air pollution—pollutants whose particles are 2.5 microns or smaller, which is approximately 30 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. Black carbon pollution is created while producing energy for homes and commercial areas through coal, wood or fossil fuel burning, and by transportation and industrial emissions, according to the Climate and Clean Air Coalition. PM 2.5 pollutants have been linked to increased risk of cancer, heart attacks, strokes and lung disease. Some 4 million deaths world-wide are attributed to long-term exposure to PM 2.5 air pollution.
“Fishermen in Maceió, Brazil, found to have higher-than-average mercury levels,” FAPESP
Researchers from the Federal University of Alagoas (UFAL) and the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in Brazil have found high levels of mercury in the blood and urine of people living on the shores of the Mundaú Lagoon in Maceió (the capital of the Brazilian state of Alagoas). These levels are higher than those found in other populations within the same municipality that have a similar socioeconomic level but live far from the lagoon. The study, which was published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials, is the result of an agreement between FAPESP and the Alagoas State Research Foundation (FAPEAL).
“We observed systemic oxidative stress in the population exposed to mercury contamination, a phenomenon related to the onset and worsening of various diseases, including cardiometabolic diseases. Both populations analyzed showed an incidence of around 20% for hypertension and 10% for diabetes. However, the population that gets its food from the lagoon may be worse off because of the contamination.”
The researchers found changes in the quantity, size, volume, and function of red blood cells in the population exposed to mercury contamination, which can lead to anemia. Changes in other biomarkers also indicate damage to organs such as the liver and kidneys. Mercury was found to increase triglyceride levels, which are a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Additionally, creatinine and urea levels were high in the contaminated population, suggesting kidney dysfunction. The Mundaú lagoon complex is connected to the sea and receives water from both the ocean and the mainland. It connects to secondary domestic and industrial effluent channels from Maceió and two other cities on its shores. These channels are the most likely sources of mercury and metal contamination.
“Antibiotics used in food-animal production linked to resistance in people,” CIDRAP
New research suggests that a class of antibiotics commonly used in poultry and other food-producing animals, but not in people, could contribute to antibiotic-resistant infections in humans. The antibiotic class in question is ionophores, which are used to treat the parasitic infection coccidiosis in poultry and to promote growth and prevent disease in pigs and cattle. Ionophores are one of several classes of antibiotics used in food-animal production that are considered non-medically important because they aren’t used in human medicine, due to toxicity. Regulated less strictly than medically important antibiotics, ionophore use accounts for 37% of antibiotics used in food-producing animals on the United States.
But in a study published last week in mSphere, researchers from Carleton University in Ottawa revealed that ionophore use could co-select for resistance to medically important antibiotics, such as tetracycline and vancomycin. Using genome sequence data from a database of bacterial pathogens, they found that bacteria carrying genes that confer resistance to ionophores are widespread, present in animals and people, and carry multiple resistance genes to medically important antibiotics.
Senior study author Alex Wong, PhD, said at a media briefing yesterday.
“That really suggests that the assumption that ionophore use in animals is safe for humans is not a good assumption. We’re accidentally selecting for resistance to drugs that are important to humans. So, this is an issue we think we need to pay more attention to than we have.”
For the study, Wong and his colleagues examined genome sequence data from the NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information) Pathogens database. They narrowed their search to genomes containing narA and narB genes, which have been found to confer resistance to the ionophores narasin and salinomycin in Enterococcus faecium.Previous studies from Sweden and the Netherlands have found E faecium isolates from poultry carrying narA and narB genes on the same plasmid as genes causing resistance to vancomycin, erythromycin, and tetracycline. Plasmids are mobile pieces of DNA that can spread resistance genes from one bacterial species to another. The primary aims of the study were to determine whether narA and narBgenes are consistently linked with resistance genes for medically important antibiotics, and how geographically widespread they are. They found that narA and narB genes were present in 2,442 bacterial isolates from 51 countries, primarily in Enterococcus faecalis and E faecium but also in eight other bacterial species. The isolates were primarily from poultry but also derived from swine and cattle. And more than 500 were collected from people, a finding the researchers say indicates there’s been some transfer from farm animals to humans. Wong said . . .
“The initial reports were out of individual countries, but it turns out we find these ionophore-resistant bacteria worldwide. We find them in North America, Europe, Asia, Oceania—every continent except Antarctica.”
In addition, the isolates containing narA and narB harbored an average of more than eight resistance genes. The most common resistance genes detected were predicted to confer resistance to erythromycin, tetracycline, and aminoglycosides. As Wong explained, that means continued ionophore use in food-animal production could not only select for more ionophore resistance, but also for resistance for antibiotics that are needed for human medicine.
“And now someone can potentially get sick from resistant bacteria that’s in a pig or a cow or a chicken,” he said.