Antibiotics in the Environment as one of the Barriers to Sustainable Development

The paper has analyzed the presence of antibiotics in crude (hospital, medicine production and municipal) waste water, treated waste water, surface water and drinking water across the world. The concentrations of antibiotics in medicine production waste water reached a level of up to 900 µ/dm³; in hospital waste water, up to 124 µ/dm³; and in municipal waste water, up to 64 µ/dm³. Antibiotic concentrations in treated waste water approached 260 ng/dm³. The presence of antibiotics in surface water has also been covered. The most often identified medicines were: Ciprofloxacin, Erythromycin, Norfloxacin, Sulfamethoxazole and Trimethoprim. The maximum antibiotic concentrations in surface water are as high as up to 2 µg/dm³. In the majority of cases, identified antibiotics occurred in concentrations from several to several dozen ng/dm³, and less often in several hundred ng/dm³. The presence of antibiotics in drinking water, similarly as for waste water, was identified worldwide, e.g. in China, USA, Germany, Canada, France. Very high antibiotic concentrations were noted in Guangzhou, China, which reached a level of up to 679.7 ng/dm³ (Ciprofloxacin), but also in the USA (Triclosan) – 734 ng/dm³). In the majority of instances, antibiotics are present in water in much lower concentrations. The consequence of environmental contamination with antibiotics is the drug resistance of many bacterial strains with the resultant deaths of 25 000 people in the European Union and 700 000 people across the globe. The other effects of the presence of antibiotics in the natural environment are not fully understood yet. For example, carcinogenic, teratogenic or mutagenic effects are attributed to these contaminants.