A Recent Study Finds Rising Air Pollution a Factor in Antibiotic Resistance

According to a recent study, there are "significant correlations" between tiny solid dust, dirt, and soot or liquid particles in the air and antibiotic resistance.

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Photo by Raimond Klavins on Unsplash

As we learn to contend with record temperatures, wildfires, humidity, hurricanes, derechos, bomb cyclones, and floods, we must also acknowledge that the climate crisis impacts every facet of existence, transcending climate and its concomitant weather.

Economics, immigration, education, housing, transportation, infrastructure, healthcare, and national defense are just a few of the critical areas our increasingly hostile climate is impacting, forcing countries big and small, rich and poor to have to modify how they have always sustained and organized themselves. 

Air pollution, while not exclusively linked to climate change, is a contributor to millions of premature deaths per year, particularly in underfunded and urban areas. It has been linked to cancers, respiratory ailments, cardiovascular disease, dementia, depression, and other deleterious conditions.

Months ago the entire east coast of the United States was blanketed in a thick hazy smoke from wildfires raging across Canada that are anticipated to continue into fall.

These fires brought out the masks ubiquitous during the COVID pandemic and sent air quality levels skyrocketing to record levels.

But a recent study from Zhejiang University and the University of Cambridge uncovered another chilling revelation about air quality sure to complicate the future of global health.

According to a paper published earlier this month in Lancet Planetary Health, there are “significant correlations” between tiny solid dust, dirt, and soot or liquid particles in the air and antibiotic resistance.

Data from 116 countries over 18 years shows the resistance “increasing at an accelerating rate…which could hasten the beginning of a so-called post-antibiotic era” in which drug-resistant diseases, or “superbugs” like Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), could become prevalent.

One of the study’s researchers, Mark A. Holmes, a professor of microbial genomics and veterinary science at Cambridge University, explained:

Pollution has a massive effect on human health even without considering antibiotic resistance. This correlation between antibiotic resistance and this type of pollution provides another incentive to tackle pollution.

Holmes claimed the results are “surprising” because they suggest “there is value in looking beyond the simple reduction in antibiotic use when tackling antibiotic resistance.”

The study looked at nine bacterial pathogens and 43 antibiotic types, and suggests for every 1% rise in air pollution, antibiotic resistance increases between 0.5 and 1.9%, depending on pathogen.

Ten years ago, the UK’s senior medical advisor, Dame Sally Davies, warned members of the British parliament that antibiotic resistance posed an “apocalyptic threat” for which patients undergoing routine operations could die from routine infections.

Health editor for The Guardian, Andrew Gregory, wrote after the recent link to air pollution was discovered:

In the absence of solutions, tackling the causes of antibiotic resistance is key. The misuse and overuse of antibiotics are the main drivers, and action is being taken against them, with varying levels of success globally.

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The adjective “unprecedented” has been bandied about a lot the past five or six years for varying reasons, political and societal.

But the unprecedented nature of climate change cannot be underscored enough.

The past eight years have been the hottest on record.

Last month was the hottest ever in recorded human history, producing 21 of 30 days with the highest recorded temperatures, breaking more than 3,200 global daily temperature records. At least 26 cities broke or tied previous daily records three or more times.

The last hottest day was back in 2016, but climate experts predict it won’t take another seven years to break another record.

The next hottest day in history could be before this year ends, not unlikely since it is already the hottest in thousands of years. Most climate scientists are predicting it will be one of the warmest years in geologic history.

Atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels are at 421.61 parts per million (ppm). The last time there was that much CO2 in the atmosphere, human beings didn’t exist yet and palm trees grew in the South Pole.

There is literally NO MORE TIME.

While it’s true every person in the United States — man, woman, and child — contributes about $2,000 a year in fossil fuel subsidies, and while some Democratic politicians — and 100% of republican ones — are sponsoring legislation written to prop up fossil fuels interests, the tide is turning.

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We are seeing the difference the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill the Senate passed in 2021 that includes $7.5 billion each for electric vehicle charging stations and zero- and low-emission ferries and buses, including school buses, is starting to make in our communities.

$73 billion is going toward power grid infrastructure.

$46 billion is being put toward flood, drought, and wildfire damage.

Last year’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) builds on that progress.

It invests about $385 billion in energy and climate change incentives that include tax credits for solar and wind energy equipment production and electric vehicle purchases.

It provides incentives to manufacture new car batteries domestically, and invests hundreds of billions of dollars in tax credits for clean energy like solar and wind, clean transportation, and de-carbonized buildings.

The new methane Emissions Reduction Program improves methane monitoring, funds environmental restoration, helps communities reduce pollution’s health effects, and increases climate resilience.

Urban parks and resilience for tribal communities are seeing significant funding, including $60 billion in new resources for environmental justice communities’ legacy pollution clean-up efforts, and rural communities will be able to take advantage of lower cost and cleaner energy sources.

The greenhouse gas reduction fund provides low-cost financing for clean energy projects, with at least 60% of the benefits of these investments flowing to disadvantaged communities.

For consumers, this means additional tax credits that encourage purchases of energy efficient homes, vehicles, and appliances, reducing energy costs and utility bills.

We’ve seen over the past few years how absent American example and leadership causes other countries to shrug off their environmental commitments.

Since his first day in office, President Biden has been working to either reverse or review “ the former guy’s” all-out assault on the environment, including establishing the most progressive climate policy in history, demanding the federal government pause and review oil and gas drilling on federal land, eliminating fossil fuel subsidies, and electrifying the government’s vehicle fleet.

Of course, there is a problem we did not have the past two years — a republican House majority.

100% of the republican party is the fossil fuel industry’s pocket.

There is also one aberration in the Democratic party, W. Va. Senator Joe Manchin, who raked in more than $400 thousand from the fossil fuel lobby. Up for re-election next year, much of his millions in campaign contributions came from executives and political action committees of ConocoPhillips, Pioneer Natural Resources Co. and EQT Corp.

Consider also the fact that over 1,500 lobbyists working on behalf of the fossil fuel industry have embedded themselves within city governments, universities, tech companies, and, yes, even environmental groups fighting those same lobbyists’ efforts.

Clearly, there is a lot to cause us to want to throw up our hands and walk away feeling defeated.

But despair is not an option.

While the climate crisis is urgent and not something to be explained away or dismissed, pessimism about the future is not going to provide us the impetus to confront it rationally.

We aren’t going to preserve a better life for our children, grandchildren, and on if we continue on our present course.

Elections have consequences. They matter.

As we are seeing with President Biden and Democrats all over the country, there has been progress, and there will continue to be if we continue to be relentless in our urgency.

If we don’t lead, other countries will tap out, and major powers, like China — the fastest producer of solar panels — will step in to fill the vacuum.

Tell that to the people who stopped reading and walk around in “America First” t-shirts.