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Antibiotics and disinfectants have saved millions of human lives and cured uncountable animal diseases, but their activity is not limited to the site of application. Downstream, these chemicals become micropollutants, contaminating water at trace levels, resulting in adverse impacts on soil microbial communities and threatening crop health and productivity in agricultural settings and perpetuating the spread of antimicrobial resistance. Especially as resource scarcity drives increased reuse of water and other waste streams, considerable attention is needed to characterize the fate of antibiotics and disinfectants and to prevent or mitigate environmental and public health impacts. In this review, we hope to provide an overview of why increasing concentrations of micropollutants such as antibiotics are concerning in the environment, how they can pose health risks for humans, and how they can be countered using bioremediation strategies.

Section snippetsIntroduction: antibiotics and disinfectants as micropollutants

We need antibiotics and disinfectants to battle infections and to grow healthy livestock, but widespread use has resulted in many serious problems such as emerging antimicrobial resistance, multidrug-resistant pathogens, and adverse effects on environmental microbial ecosystems [1]. In the United States alone, approximately 11 000 000 kg of antibiotics are sold and used for therapeutic and subtherapeutic purposes [2], and particularly in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, disinfectant use has

Impacts of antimicrobial micropollutants on soil microbiota and plants

Contamination in soil can change taxonomic and functional characteristics of microbial communities. Two major concerns about the impacts on soil microbiota are decreased productivity in terms of nutrient cycling and increased antimicrobial resistance.

Sulfamethoxazole contamination not only alters the phylogenetic profile of soil microbiota, but also changes their functional profile [12]. A study using composting material, including straw and cow manure supplemented with 25, 50, or 100 mg/kg

Remediation and mitigation strategies

Remediation technologies can be categorized into physical, chemical, and biological approaches. Physical and chemical technologies such as advanced oxidation and flocculation are used despite their drawbacks of by-product toxicity and high cost [28]. Novel physical and chemical treatment methods include redox transformation of sulfamethoxazole by nanoscale zerovalent iron particles [29], reduction of pollutant bioavailability using environment-friendly biochar [30], and degradation of QACs,

Conclusions and outlook

Antibiotics and disinfectants such as sulfamethoxazole and BAC are necessary, as is water reuse and resource recovery. However, when present as micropollutants, these compounds threaten soil and crop health by disrupting microbial communities and damaging plant tissues directly and indirectly and contribute to the global threat of antimicrobial resistance. While biological processes that are commonly employed in wastewater treatment can degrade micropollutants, they need to be engineered

CRediT authorship contribution statement

AAM: Investigation, Visualization, Writing – original draft; WS: Writing – review & editing; EMH: Conceptualization, Writing – review & editing, Supervision.

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflicts to declare.

Acknowledgements

WS and EMH are supported in part by the National Science Fundation Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems Division, USA (grant ID: 2043156).

References and recommended reading (49)View full text

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