Farming, Pharmaceutical and Health Pollution Fuelling Rise in Superbugs, UN Warns (theguardian.com) 31
Pollution from livestock farming, pharmaceuticals and healthcare is threatening to destroy a key pillar of modern medicine, as spills of manure and other pollution into waterways are adding to the global rise of superbugs, the UN has warned. From a report: Animal farming is one of the key sources of strains of bacteria that have developed resistance to all forms of antibiotics, through the overuse of the medicines in farming. Pharmaceutical pollution of waterways, from drug manufacturing plants, is also a major contributor, along with the failure to provide sanitation and control sewage around the world, and to tackle waste from healthcare facilities. Resistant superbugs can survive in untreated sewage.
The findings of the new report, published on Tuesday, show that pollution and a lack of sanitation in the developing world can no longer be regarded by the rich world as a faraway and localised problem for poor people. When superbugs emerge, they quickly spread, and threaten the health even of people in well-funded healthcare systems in the rich world. Poor sanitation and healthcare, and a lack of regulation in animal farming, create breeding grounds for resistant bacteria, and threaten global health as a result, the UN Environment Programme found in the report. As many as 10 million people a year could be dying by 2050 as a result of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), according to the UN, making it as big a killer as cancer is today. The rise of superbugs will also take an economic toll, resulting in the loss of about $3.4tn a year by the end of this decade, and pushing 24 million people into extreme poverty.
The findings of the new report, published on Tuesday, show that pollution and a lack of sanitation in the developing world can no longer be regarded by the rich world as a faraway and localised problem for poor people. When superbugs emerge, they quickly spread, and threaten the health even of people in well-funded healthcare systems in the rich world. Poor sanitation and healthcare, and a lack of regulation in animal farming, create breeding grounds for resistant bacteria, and threaten global health as a result, the UN Environment Programme found in the report. As many as 10 million people a year could be dying by 2050 as a result of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), according to the UN, making it as big a killer as cancer is today. The rise of superbugs will also take an economic toll, resulting in the loss of about $3.4tn a year by the end of this decade, and pushing 24 million people into extreme poverty.
Meat is the problem! (Score:3, Insightful)
The problem is livestock farming. They use most of the antibiotics and the farms (CAFOs - concentrated animal feeding operations) are the source of most of these "superbugs".
Yes, pharmaceuticals are the problem but it is not pharmaceuticals given to humans, it's the tons that are fed routinely to livestock to "keep them healthy".
It's not human healthcare that is the problem, it is industrial livestock farming.
A good argument for giving up meat.
Re:Meat is the problem! (Score:5, Informative)
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Yes, not against meat, per se, but when you consider that 99+% of the meat that most people have access to is from industrial farms, the only way to stop this is to stop eating meat.
The output of boutique animal farms is miniscule (and unfortunately, most of them do use antibiotics... albeit in limited circumstances).
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> not against meat, per se
> the only way to stop this is to stop eating meat.
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You just have to accept that you can't do it with Profit To The Max! TM.
I'd instead focus on making gain of function research illegal, because that has superbugs as the stated goal.
Re: Meat is the problem! (Score:1)
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Exactly so. Cows and sheep belong on pasture - which is often land that would not be useful for any other kind of farming. Pigs and chickens belong outdoors, ideally in woods and orchards where they can forage for a wide variety of natural foods.
Factory farming is the result of corporate greed, nothing else.
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"I'd instead focus on making gain of function research illegal, because that has superbugs as the stated goal."
Ya, 'cause the bugs will leave us alone if we don't do any research on their capabilities.
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Ya, 'cause the bugs will leave us alone if we don't do any research on their capabilities.
We're talking more about the bugs that wouldn't exist without us creating them. That's what gain of function is.
Re: Meat is the problem! (Score:2)
A good argument for giving up meat.
A stupid argument for giving up meat, considering that there's plenty available that's raised without antibiotics, including the kind you hunt for yourself.
Note: I haven't eaten meat for 34 years.
Re: Meat is the problem! (Score:2)
Lots of other benefits to giving up meat. Reducing cancer and heart disease, among others.
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Lots of other benefits to giving up meat. Reducing cancer and heart disease, among others.
Along with lots of benefits for eating meat, such as quality of life. Okay, maybe just one, but it is quite important to most people.
Re: Meat is the problem! (Score:1)
Vegetarians who proselytize.
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No.
Antibiotics use in livestock farming is only a part of the problem. Pharmaceuticals for human use are a bigger part of it.
After a case of an infection with a previously unknown superbug strain in a person rescued from drowning in a river in March 2017, a large-scale suvey of superbug contamination in rivers in the region was done: http://www.mre-rhein-main.de/d... [mre-rhein-main.de]
The main results were:
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It's also a good argument for buying organic meat.
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> When people did simple physical labor for work, a low IQ didn't matter much.
Technically speaking, trolling on slashdot is the lowest physical labor job there is. So your point is valid.
Klaus says (Score:1)
ju vil eat ze bugs, und ju vil LIKE ZEM!
Just waiting ... (Score:3)
Meanwhile, by far the largest 'signals' in waterways* from "pharmaceuticals" (to use the term loosely) are from drugs like Fentanyl, methamphetamine, MDMA (thanks for someone pointing this out to me recently) and cannabis. I'm sure that some old Aspirin plant might be leaking stuff into the sewer or storm water systems. But overall, most gets there via human "waste streams".
*Waterway as opposed to sanitary sewer (where a lot of interesting epidemiological work can be done) tends to include more poop and urine on the sidewalks, washed into local creeks.
Forgot one (Score:1, Interesting)
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Care to look up the stats on auto-immune disorders brought on by the covid vaccine and compare them against the death brought on by covid? Now go up to your bedroom and let the grownups deal with the real world.
Finally! (Score:3)
Humanity has put in a lot of effort to treat the Earth very poorly, laboring for centuries to polluting indiscriminately. It's about time we get the superbugs we are due.
Pax in Terra? No! Pox in Terra!
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Save the world (Score:2)
To save the world we must do away with farms.