Rise in superbugs blamed on one factor – and there is not any getting away from them
Scientists reckon they’ve pinpointed the reason why superbugs are on the rise in today’s society – but short of locking yourself away from civilisation, there’s no real escape
Deadly superbugs are on the rise and researchers think one unexpected reason could be to blame – microplastics.
These minuscule plastics break off from food packaging and bags, and then infiltrate the body. Pollution’s only boosting the number of microplastic particles floating around, linking them to illnesses such as cancer, dementia, and heart disease. These plastics can snake through food and move around your body via the bloodstream. The World Health Organisation has confirmed that they could cause conditions.
They said: “Microplastics are ubiquitous in the environment and have been detected in a broad range of concentrations in marine water, wastewater, fresh water, food, air and drinking-water, both bottled and tap water.”
Experts think there’s a link between these plastics and bacteria fuelling their resistance to antibiotics. With superbugs getting tougher, able to withstand medications – partly because people overuse them – experts are worried about the future of health.
Scientists have discovered that bugs are entering human bodies via microplastics, making them “up to 200 times” more resistant to antibiotics. This alarming research was conducted by the Ineos Oxford Institute for Antimicrobial Research and Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University in China, reports the Mirror.
A new paper reveals that it was already known that bacteria would mutate with plastics, but the extent of the threat from microplastics is surprising. The paper states: “Microplastics, particles less than 5 nanometres long, are ubiquitous in the environment. Microplastics present in the environment are known to act as a platform for bacteria to attach to and exchange genes with their neighbours via plasmids, a process called horizontal gene transfer.”
It further adds: “This new research published in Environment International has shown that the presence of microplastics in the mating culture increases the frequency of plasmid conjugation, the movement of plasmids carrying antibiotic resistance genes between bacteria, by up to 200 times compared to control samples with no microplastics.”
Professor Timothy Walsh, Director of Biology at the Ineos Oxford Institute and co-author of the paper, expressed his concern: “Given the lack of global plastic waste governance and the increasing amount of microplastics infiltrating all aspects of human activity, these findings are very concerning. At the individual level we need to reduce, recycle and reuse – at the global level we need robust plastic waste governance policies.”
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