General, Research, Technology

Antibiotics enter sewage and harm nature. How will scientists purify water?

Every day we drain not onlywaste of their life, but also particles of all kinds of medicines. At the end of 2019, it became known that due to the ingress of chemical elements into the water, some fish species become less mobile, which is why they are more at risk of becoming victims of predators and ultimately can become extinct. Even greater harm to animals and nature in general is caused by antibiotics, which are used not only for medical purposes, but also for growing plants and accelerating the growth of livestock. Scientists already know how to break down antibiotics that have got into the water with the help of cerium metal, but this chemical element also harms nature. Fortunately, recently Russian and Chinese scientists managed to solve this problem.

Drugs entering sewage are harmful to the environment.

About a new method of wastewater treatment fromantibiotics were reported in the scientific journal Scientific Reports. As a rule, antibiotics are used to treat infections caused by pathogenic bacteria. However, in addition to this, they are actively used in agriculture to prevent diseases in animals and plants, as well as to accelerate their growth. Due to the high frequency of use, antibiotics in large quantities fall into the water and harm the health of fish and other living organisms.

How do medicines harm nature?

Particularly popular in agricultureuse tetracycline antibiotics. Their popularity is due to the comparative cheapness and wide spectrum of action, but they do not decompose in water for a very long time. To accelerate this process, so-called catalysts are used, which are substances that increase the rate of flow of chemical reactions. For the decomposition of antibiotics, cerium metal is excellent, but it itself is very harmful to nature. That would be great if he performed his function without falling into nature?

See also: What to do with expired drugs?

Fortunately, scientists from Russia and China thought ofincorporate cerium ions into the crystal lattice of apatite, which is a fairly well-known mineral. Basically, it consists of calcium phosphate already contained in the bone tissues of living organisms, therefore it is completely harmless to the environment. During the experiments, scientists found that the crystal lattice of the mineral does not allow the catalyst to get into the water, but at the same time it accelerates the decomposition of antibiotics.

Chlorinated wastewater contributes to new types of antibiotics

According to Ph.D. Dina Deineco,thanks to their development, it is possible not only to purify water from antibiotics, but also to detect even their smallest presence. And the thing is that cerium, in addition to its catalyzing properties, is also an excellent indicator of antibiotics.

If you are interested in the news of science and technology, subscribe to our channel in Yandex. Dzen. There you will find materials that have not been published on the site!

Maybe soon contentantibiotics in wastewater will actually decrease. This is great news, given that in one of the scientific works, scientists found that chlorinated wastewater can form new, previously unknown antibiotics. It turns out that bacteria get the opportunity to develop resistance to drugs that have not yet been created. It is impossible to refuse chlorine in water because of its disinfecting properties, but a decrease in the number of antibiotics in water would be most welcome.