Author Interviews, Environmental Risks / 24.06.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr Jianhua Guo PhD ARC Future Fellow, Senior Research Fellow Advanced Water Management Centre University of Queensland Brisbane Australia MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: It was found that wastewater from residential areas has similar or even higher levels of antibiotic resistant bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes compared to hospitals, where you would expect greater antibiotic concentrations. Thus, we wonder whether non-antibiotic chemicals such as triclosan can directly induce antibiotic resistance, because triclosan could be ubiquitously detected in various water environments, like wastewater. We found triclosan found in personal care products that we use daily could directly induce multi-drug resistance through mutation. The discovery should be a wake-up call to re-evaluate the potential impact of non-antibiotic chemicals on the dissemination of antibiotic resistance. (more…)
Allergies, Author Interviews / 13.09.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Erica Marie Hartmann PhD Assistant Professor Dept. of Civil & Environmental Engineering Northwestern University Evanston, IL 60208 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The antimicrobial chemical triclosan has been found in almost every dust sample that has ever been tested worldwide, and we already know that triclosan can cause an increase in antibiotic resistance genes in wastewater. This study is the first to show a link between antibiotic resistance genes and antimicrobial chemicals in indoor dust, which people tend to come into contact with more than wastewater. This finding is important because the World Health Organization has identified a huge information gap in community-acquired antibiotic-resistant infections; the use of antimicrobial chemicals in homes and other non-medical buildings could be contributing to the development of antibiotic resistance outside of hospital settings. This study was published in the wake of the FDA decision last week to ban the use of triclosan and several other antimicrobial chemicals in soaps. While the FDA decision is a good first step, it's not the end the problem. Antimicrobial chemicals like triclosan are in a lot of different products. Right now, we don’t know how much of the triclosan we see in dust comes from soap vs. other products (building materials, paints, plastics, etc.). (more…)