"Antibiotics in wastewater pose severe health risks to individuals," convinces Prof. Łukasz Wolski of the Faculty of Chemistry. The scientist is developing catalysts for the straightforward and quick removal of such pollutants from water. He received financing for his research within the NCN Sonata programme.
The project ‘Catalysts based on mixed metal oxides for the removal of antibiotic contaminants from water by light-assisted ozonation’ will be conducted at the AMU Faculty of Chemistry with the support of the research teams from the NanoBioMedical Centre and chemists from Jagiellonian University.
It is hardly disagreeable that antibiotics serve a crucial role in defending human life. For this reason, there has been a significant increase in their consumption for many years. It is estimated that in 2030, consumption will increase by 200% compared to the consumption recorded in 2015.
Meanwhile, scientific studies confirm that a major part of the antibiotics consumed is excreted from organisms in active form and ends up in wastewater. In some cases, this could be as much as 90% of the initial dose of the pharmaceutical. Most such contamination is found in wastewater from hospitals.
- Many conventional methods of wastewater treatment containing antibiotics fail to remove them completely. As a result, antibiotics end up in the ecosystem. Even small amounts of these chemicals in water or soils can, in the long term, contribute to bacteria developing defence mechanisms that enable them to function in such an environment. This could consequently lead to a situation where drug-resistant bacteria emerge as a result of mutations, says Prof. Wolski.
Photo by Władysław Gardasz
The entire article can be found in Polish on the Życie Uniwersyteckie website!