- WASHINGTON (U.S. Newswire)
- Antibiotics are found in 48 percent of 139 streams in 30 states, according
to results from a new study by the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
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- "This is important new data," said Tamar Barlam,
M.D., an infectious disease specialist at the Center for Science in the
Public Interest. "We know that bacteria are more likely to become
resistant to drugs the more they encounter antibiotics. The next step is
to see if there is a connection with contamination of our waterways and
antibiotic-resistant infections in people."
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- The study, simultaneously published in the scientific
journal, Environmental Science and Technology, and posted to the USGS Web
site http://toxics.usgs.gov/), looked for approximately 100 different contaminants
in 139 streams in 30 states, including 62 downstream from agricultural
operations. Included in this list of contaminants are 22 human and veterinary
antibiotics. The USGS findings showed that 14 antibiotics used in human
medicine and animal agriculture end up in our waterways.
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- "The USGS study shows that many antibiotics are
moving through our environment in ways that weren't widely appreciated
before," stated Mardi Mellon, Ph.D., senior scientist at the Union
of Concerned Scientists.
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- The Union of Concerned Scientists estimates that up to
70 percent of all antibiotics in the U.S. are given to healthy farm animals
to promote growth and compensate for unsanitary growing conditions. Many
of these antibiotics are the same as, or closely related to, medically
important antibiotics. A significant proportion of the antibiotics given
to farm animals are excreted in feces or urine, and this waste is stored
in open lagoons and/or spread as fertilizer onto agricultural fields. Runoff,
leakage or overflow can allow antibiotics to reach surface and groundwater
and, potentially, drinking water sources.
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- The USGS Toxic Substances Hydrology Program -- which
produced the study -- is the only national monitoring program of its kind
in the U.S. The Bush Administration's proposed 2003 budget eliminates all
funding for this project.
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- "Continuing this USGS program is critical for public
health, but the President's proposed budget would eliminate it," said
Rebecca Goldburg, Ph.D., senior scientist at Environmental Defense. "The
USGS now has a combination of expertise and experience conducting these
kinds of studies found nowhere else. If funding is abolished, the USGS'
unique ability to perform these important studies will be lost."
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- In conjunction with the release of the USGS data, a letter,
signed by close to 40 organizations, has been sent to each of the House
and Senate subcommittees on Interior Appropriations requesting that full
funding be restored to the USGS program.
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- Environmental Defense, the Union of Concerned Scientists
and the Center for Science in the Public Interest are members of "Keep
Antibiotics Working (KAW): The Campaign to End Antibiotic Overuse."
KAW is a coalition of health, consumer, agricultural, environmental and
other advocacy groups with more than nine million members dedicated to
eliminating a major cause of antibiotic resistance-the inappropriate use
of antibiotics in farm animals.
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