Emerging Pollutants 3: Biological CECs and Antibiotic Resistance

Chemicals dominate modern life. They’re in the air we breathe, the food we eat, the products we use daily, and the rivers and soils that sustain us. Many are harmless or even helpful, but some present risks. For regulators, it’s a daunting task to figure out which of the millions of compounds that swirl around us are potentially harmful. In this series of articles, 3E will help you navigate emergent pollutants to examine which substances are likely to attract regulatory attention in the future.

We’ve known for years that certain pharmaceutical products and their active molecules can linger in the environment and disrupt ecosystems. It was back in the 1980s that scientists started to notice that rising levels of estrogen in rivers were causing male fish to produce female proteins and even develop eggs in their testes.

But over the past couple of decades, there has been a growing recognition that there is a much broader and increasing number of biological and biochemical substances beyond just estrogen that are accumulating in the environment and could pose a risk to public or environmental health. These biological contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) often find their way into the environment as byproducts of agricultural practices, pharmaceutical manufacturing, or the actions of the wider healthcare sector.

Amy Pruden is an environmental scientist at Virginia Tech who leads a team of researchers that uses DNA sequencing and bioinformatics tools to track biological CECs in the environment. Pruden was one of the first scientists to discuss the concept of biological CECs in a 2006 research article. “That paper put out the idea that antibiotic resistance genes [ARGs] are emerging contaminants,” she told 3E. “I wanted people to know that biological contaminants can be emerging too.” Pruden says that biological CECs are becoming more prevalent, and regulators around the world are noticing and starting to act.