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Study estimates 80 pc length of India's rivers posing risks from antibiotic pollution

Eighty per cent of total length of India's rivers could be posing environmental and health risks due to antibiotic pollution, a study has estimated.

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Along with India, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Vietnam, and Pakistan are among the countries facing similar risks due to pollution from antibiotics, the research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) Nexus, said. Researchers from McGill University, Canada, explained that antibiotics —they help fight bacterial diseases — are not completely metabolised while passing through the body, nor completely destroyed or removed by most wastewater treatment facilities.

Potentially 315 million people in India could be exposed to environmental risks arising from rivers contaminated with antibiotics, according to the study, which measured amounts of 21 antibiotics at 877 locations globally.

What needs to be done

Findings highlight the need for appropriate wastewater management plans and improving current practices, the team said.

Regulations and guidelines on use of antibiotics also need to be updated, with a particular focus on high-risk substances and locations that pose the greatest risk, they said.

The team estimated that in a year, people consume around 29,200 tonnes of the 40 most used antibiotics — about a third of the amount enters the world's rivers and 11 per cent enters oceans and lakes, after metabolism and wastewater treatment. 

Set of first editions of Shakespeare's plays could fetch $6 million at auction

A set of the first four editions of William Shakespeare's collected works is expected to sell for up to 4.5 million pounds at auction next month. Sotheby's auction house announced the sale on Wednesday, Shakespeare's 461st birthday. It said the May 23 sale will be the first time since 1989 that a set of the First, Second, Third and Fourth Folios has been offered at auction as a single lot. The auction house estimated the sale price at between 3.5 million and 4.5 million pounds.

After Shakespeare's death in 1616, his plays were collected into a single volume by his friends John Heminges and Henry Condell, actors and shareholders in the playwright's troupe, the King's Men.

The First Folio — fully titled “Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories & Tragedies” — contained 36 plays, of which half were published there for the first time. AP