Are plastics contributing to antibiotic resistance?

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Plastics are used in all areas of human life, ranging from industrial use to medical applications as well as domestic settings. This is in tandem with the affordability and versatility of plastic materials. As a consequence, the widespread use of plastics has produced a waste management challenge. The breakdown of plastics produces micro and nanosized particles that have generated a waste management problem. Whereas some plastics are manufactured in microsize for industrial use others break down to nanosize due to physico-chemical and biological kinetics. There are several health risks that have been associated with microplastics (mp)and nanoplastics(np).

 In this exposition, health risks associated with plastics are examined in three ways; human health, animal health and environmental health. There are several considerations to be assessed in the realm of human health. It is noteworthy that human health interacts with other variables that are environmental to produce disease. There are direct as well as indirect health impacts.

 

Directly, plastics act as disease agents by causing harm to human tissue and systems. For instance, plastics can directly cause inflammation of the respiratory system when inhaled during combustion. Such exposure may cause respiratory distress with concomitant downstream health outcomes. Among children, given their inexperience and immature immune systems mp and np can cause harm when ingested. Plastics have been used in the education sector to fabricate various learning items. Safe as they may appear, wear and tear can increase the risk associated with plastic handling and use. As such unsupervised use of plastics among pupils has increased health risk and physical harm. Similarly, since children play together, plastic serves as a salient vehicle for transmission of microorganisms.

 

Indirectly, plastics can adsorb chemical toxicants and biological materials. The chemical toxicants could be derived from decomposition of larger plastic particles. At the same time, some chemicals may be adsorbed from the environmental milieu. Today, the impacts of such adsorbed chemicals on human health have been characterized. Studies have reported that some of the chemicals are cytotoxic, mutagenic, and teratogenic. Given their varying grades of toxicity, exposure to such chemicals has many deleterious health consequences.

 

In terms of biological implications, the microplastics and nanoplastics can act as vectors that carry millions of bacteria. As such, the bacteria and other adsorbed microorganisms can interact with the chemicals and undergo mutagenic transformation. importantly, passenger chemicals that are adsorbed will continue generating successive regimes of drug resistant bacteria. We should pose for a moment and examine the implications of such resistant bacteria that are progeny of mutagenic processes. Most importantly, is the interaction of such bacteria and human food, water and other consumables.

 

The contemporary society is bombarded by unrelenting onslaughts of pathogenic drug resistant bacteria. Indeed, the cause effect relationship has been observed by several scientist working in various sectors such as agriculture, health, veterinary and food processing industry. It is evident that drug resistance is not only limited to antibiotic nexus, now there is overwhelming evidence that plastics are also implicated.

In terms of animal health, mp and np pose an equally significant health threat. Given their nature, animals experience exposure to mp and np that is not fully elucidated. Mainly due to their inability to communicate injury and symptoms. As such, evaluating the impacts of plastics on animals is curtailed by such limitations. Available evidence has shown that plastics, are ingested by both domestic and wild animals. Studies of abattoir-produced waste show that plastics cause injury and death to animals. Whereas physical assessment has produced evidence of plastic harm, there is a need for histological evaluation to establish the extent of plastic toxication.

Considering the mechanisms of operation of the ecosystem, the food chain is inevitably linked to man. 

Accordingly, all toxicants that enter the food chain may ultimately appear in human food. From the 

foregoing, plastic toxicants, toxins, and biological contaminants continue to increase in human food. 

Studies in Holland, for instance, have reported the presence of nanoplastics in human blood. At the 

same time several studies have reported the presence of nanoplastics in the tap water of many cities. 

The presence of plastics in blood and drinking water should be treated by health sector stakeholders as

 a reason warranting collective targeted action.

 

The Wild animals constitute part of our environment and are equally exposed. Given their lifestyle, wild animals are confined to parks and game reserves. Plastics contaminate their pasture, water, and home ranges. In vivo and in vitro studies have been used to extrapolate the health risks faced by wild animals. However, such studies are limited by methodological and ethical caveats. Worse still, it is not known how the global climate change will impact wildlife especially in light of the artificial environment that plastics create continuously. In the marine and aquatic ecosystems, the mp and np dynamics are different. The physico-chemical conditions and temperature regimes alter cohesive and adhesive attributes of nanoplastics and microplastics. At the same time given the foraging habits of marine and aquatic animals, the plastic particles may mimic their foods. Consequently, many marine and aquatic animals consume large quantities of micro and nanoplastics.

Antibiotic resistance studies are largely focused on human populations and are limited in scope and application to wildlife populations. However, wildlife is also exposed to antibiotics and interaction with domestic animals. Therefore, antibiotic resistance is a threat to domestic animal health via their feral interaction axis. This study, notes that zoonoses may increase in incidence. At the same time, the zoonotic organisms are likely to gain significant virulence and increased antibiotic resistance.

 

Plastic particles can impact the aquatic and marine life directly and indirectly. Upon ingestion, the quantity consumed may cause immediate harm or exert toxic effects that cause injury and death. If the animals survive, chronic exposure is known to cause impacts on reproduction, feeding, and development. Since seafood is favored by many people, the contamination of aquatic and marine ecosystems by antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria is a problem that warrants urgent attention and action. Whereas there are several frontiers for combating the antibiotic resistance menace, plastics present a subtle pathway of antibiotic drug resistance.