Chapter 14
Antibiotic Resistance, Its Health Impacts
and Advancements in Their Removal
Techniques with a Focus on Biological
Treatment
Rajneesh Kumar, Payal Mazumder, and Mohammad Jawed
14.1 Introduction
Lately, antibiotics have become an essential part and parcel of human health as it
provides an indispensable role in the cure of various microbial infections. About
90,71,847 kg of antibiotics are manufactured yearly for utilization in human and
animal health, aquaculture and agriculture activities, as a consequence of which they
are emancipated into the water environment in many ways. Some of these compounds
are crucial in our present society. The unregulated organic pollutants, called emerging
pollutants, have been lately instigated or found with the help of facilitated analytical
tools (Richardson 2011). Effluents from pharmaceutical industries and hospitals hold
very high amount of these antibiotics, while the concentration detected in ground and
surface waters varies from a few parts per billion (ppb) to many parts per million(ppm)
(Hernando et al. 2006; Watkinson et al. 2009).
Antibiotics are extensively utilized in medicine and animal farms. However, a
very small tranche (10%) can be metabolized by animals and humans, and about
90% is liberated into the environment (Nguyen et al. 2017). Another major source
of antibiotics in water is sewage due to unsafe disposal by consumers. The expiry
date on the medicines does not indicate that the medicine has completely lost its
potency and is no longer effective or harmless after it is discarded in water bodies.
Common practices all around the world for unused medicines to flush in the sink
Rajneesh Kumar and Payal Mazumder are the joint first authors.
R. Kumar · P. Mazumder (B)
Centre for the Environment, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati,
Assam 781039, India
e-mail: payal93@iitg.ac.in
M. Jawed
Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati,
Assam 781039, India
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
M. Kumar et al. (eds.), Contaminants in Drinking and Wastewater Sources,
Springer Transactions in Civil and Environmental Engineering,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4599-3_14
325
Antibiotic Resistance, Its Health Impacts
and Advancements in Their Removal
Techniques with a Focus on Biological
Treatment
Rajneesh Kumar, Payal Mazumder, and Mohammad Jawed
14.1 Introduction
Lately, antibiotics have become an essential part and parcel of human health as it
provides an indispensable role in the cure of various microbial infections. About
90,71,847 kg of antibiotics are manufactured yearly for utilization in human and
animal health, aquaculture and agriculture activities, as a consequence of which they
are emancipated into the water environment in many ways. Some of these compounds
are crucial in our present society. The unregulated organic pollutants, called emerging
pollutants, have been lately instigated or found with the help of facilitated analytical
tools (Richardson 2011). Effluents from pharmaceutical industries and hospitals hold
very high amount of these antibiotics, while the concentration detected in ground and
surface waters varies from a few parts per billion (ppb) to many parts per million(ppm)
(Hernando et al. 2006; Watkinson et al. 2009).
Antibiotics are extensively utilized in medicine and animal farms. However, a
very small tranche (10%) can be metabolized by animals and humans, and about
90% is liberated into the environment (Nguyen et al. 2017). Another major source
of antibiotics in water is sewage due to unsafe disposal by consumers. The expiry
date on the medicines does not indicate that the medicine has completely lost its
potency and is no longer effective or harmless after it is discarded in water bodies.
Common practices all around the world for unused medicines to flush in the sink
Rajneesh Kumar and Payal Mazumder are the joint first authors.
R. Kumar · P. Mazumder (B)
Centre for the Environment, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati,
Assam 781039, India
e-mail: payal93@iitg.ac.in
M. Jawed
Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati,
Assam 781039, India
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
M. Kumar et al. (eds.), Contaminants in Drinking and Wastewater Sources,
Springer Transactions in Civil and Environmental Engineering,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4599-3_14
325