Emissions of high concentrations of antibiotics from manufacturing sites select for resistant bacteria and may contribute to the emergence of new forms of resistance in pathogens. Many scientists, industry, policy makers and other stakeholders recognize such pollution as an unnecessary and unacceptable risk to global public health.
An attempt to assess and reduce such discharges, however, quickly meets with complex realities that need to be understood to identify effective ways to move forward. This study, just published by scientists at CARe, charts 33 relevant key actor-types, their main stakes and interests, incentives that can motivate them to act to improve the situation, as well as disincentives that may undermine such motivation. The need for transparency as well as actions from high-resource consumer states, especially in multinational cooperation, are identified as key in initiating change.
Links to the study:
Nijsingh N, Munthe C, Larsson DGJ. (2019) Managing pollution from antibiotics manufacturing: charting actors, incentives and disincentives. Environmental Health. 18:95. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12940-019-0531-1
Contact: Professor Joakim Larsson joakim.larsson@fysiologi.gu.se