Sulfate radical-based processes for removal of antibiotics and antibiotic-resistant bacteria from water

Bacterial resistance to antibiotics is one of the current research trends in environmental chemistry and microbiology. In terms of number of publications, the topic of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) is one of the most published topics in the scientific community. The topic of ARGs is also the subject of the present project, which targets one of the main hotspots of ARG spread - wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Urban WWTP discharges to surface water have been identified as clear hot spots for the spread of ARGs in the environment. Hospital wastewater often contains so-called multidrug-resistant bacteria that possess several ARGs simultaneously. In practice, infections with multidrug-resistant bacteria are not curable with either a combination of conventional antibiotics or last-resort antibiotics and in most cases result in patient deaths. Hospitals therefore resort to sophisticated disinfection measures both indoors and in the case of wastewater treatment. Despite drastic measures (e.g., chlorination), hospital effluent entering the municipal WWTP contains significant amounts of ARGs, some of which pass through the WWTP and become part of the WWTP effluent to surface waters. Similarly, antibiotic residues can be present at concentrations in excess of 1 µg/l in WWTP effluent. Antibiotics (ATBs) are among the newly identified micropollutants. Their negative impact on the environment is based on their ecotoxicity to aquatic organisms and their selective effect on bacterial consortia in terms of spreading ARGs. Although most existing studies do not support a correlation between background concentrations of antibiotics and ARGs, there is still no consensus in scientific circles due to the low number of studies of this type. However, the issue of antibiotic resistance poses a significant problem due to predictions estimating higher lethality from antibiotic resistance than from cancer as early as 2050. It is therefore appropriate to pay close attention to both factors, as the potential for harm from the massive spread of ARGs in bacterial communities is enormous.