Biography
Biography: Hans-Uwe Dahms
Abstract
Xenobiotics are affecting the oceans. Among them are antibiotics (ABs) used worldwide to treat diseases and protect the health of humans, animals and plans alike. They are also incorporated into animal feed to improve growth rate and feed efficiency. As antibiotics are poorly absorbed in the gut, the majority is excreted unchanged in feces and urine. Given that land applications of sewage and its subsequent leaching to aquifers is often a common practice in many countries, there is a growing international concern about the potential impact of antibiotic residues on the environment. Frequent use of antibiotics has also raised concerns about increased antibiotic resistance of microorganisms. We here give the opportunity to update information available in the literature on the use, sales, exposure pathways, environmental occurrence, fate, effects and remediation of ABs in the aquatic environment. Only recently, more complex investigations of ABs were made to assess the environmental risks they may pose. Within the last decade an increasing number of studies covering antibiotic input, occurrence, fate and effects were published, but there is still a lack of understanding about antibiotics in the aquatic environment with respect to input sources and quantities, pathways, fate and effects on non-target organisms.