MUENCHHAUSEN
AN ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER ABOUT ENVIRONMENT,
RENEWABLE RESOURCE TECHNOLOGY,
AND RELATED TOPICS
By BOOTSTRAP PRESS, INC.
BETHESDA, MD
GREENBARON@CSI.COM
=================================================================
JULY 27, 2004
=================================================================
WELCOME!
The Green Baron welcomes one and all who take the time to read Muenchhausen. He aims to “tell it like it is” as much as possible, and avoid advocacy and ideological positions. There are enough of those to go around in other publications.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The Green Baron again thanks all those who make it possible to meet, and ask questions of many distinguished people of our times. For this issue, he thanks the staff members of the Embassies of Serbia and Montenegro, and Albania for hosting press conferences the Green Baron was invited to attend July 21. Thanks also are given to Mr. Peter Hickman of the National Press Club, Washington, DC, who so ably organizes many of these conferences. In addition, the Green Baron expresses gratitude to the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID, Bethesda, MD) for inviting him to conferences that offer much new insight into microbial resistance against pharmaceuticals.
ANTIBIOTICS AS SOIL CONTAMINANTS?
Yes, they could be, says Heather Dion of the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, University of Georgia (Aiken, SC). She reminded the 2004 Annual Conference on Antimicrobial Resistance that perhaps more than 20 million kilograms (kg)—that’s 20,000 metric tons (tonnes) of antibiotics and antimicrobials are administered each year to livestock. Many of these pharmaceuticals (“pharmas”) are used to promote animal growth as well as to combat bacterial diseases. Perhaps as many as 10 antimicrobials are used. Dion noted that the specific drugs used are difficult to ascertain, because this often is proprietary information. The conference, by the way, was sponsored by NFID and held in Bethesda, MD, in late June. The Green Baron was invited to hear some of the presentations there.
Because so much of these pharmas are used, or overused, perhaps, first of all, they often tend to lead to the development of resistance by microbes against these drugs. In addition, the heavy use of such drugs in feedlots, for instance, must mean that at some point, they migrate into the environment, particularly into waterways and soils. Could it be that some of those antimicrobials in the environment cause resistance to develop among microbes found there, too? Also, from the chemical standpoint, what might be the environmental fate of these drugs?
Dion and her colleagues tested tetracycline, a commonly used antibiotic, as a model compound, to trace its fate and transport. This antimicrobial is in high commercial use against human infectious diseases, and it also is used to promote animal growth. Its molecular structure may be found at http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/motm/tetracycline/mol.htm. A glance at its structure suggests that it has a strong dipole moment and thus could form complexes with, and bind to ions and minerals in water and soils.
If such binding takes place, could it be that tetracycline (or another antibiotic) becomes a persistent contaminant in the environment? Dion set up an experiment in which tetracycline was treated with soil minerals such as muscovite, kaolinite (a form of clay), and smectite in water. The soil:solution ratio was 1:10, and the tetracycline concentration range was 1 part per million (ppm) to 1,000 ppm. After a period of mixing, the supernatant water was analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). It should be noted that although muscovite and kaolinite presented surface areas of 4 and 8 square meters per gram (m2/g), respectively, smectite presented a surface area of 87 m2/g, more than 10 times that of kaolinite.
The Green Baron won’t go into all of the particulars, because whole papers can be written about this subject. However, tetracycline was exposed to several cations (metal ions dissolved in water), and was found to form complexes with metals such as sodium, potassium, and copper in liquid phase. These showed up through analysis by a variant of ion mass spectrometry called IMS-MS. From results of these analyses and analysis of tetracycline’s sorption in soils, it may eventually be possible to get a “handle” on biological and environmental activity. For example, if tetracycline persists in soils and water, might pathogenic bacteria in the environment develop resistance to it? This is what researchers want to find out, as well as to learn just how much pharmaceutical material is lodged in the environment.
Although Dion and her team worked with tetracycline, they also found that a variety of antibiotic residues may be found. She notes, for example, “A variety of antibiotic residues is found in commercial poultry litter.” Perhaps this is why some countries, such as Sweden, have mandated stopping use of antibiotics for livestock, except for the express purpose of curing disease.
MORE CHANGES IN STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS
Methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) not only is going out to the community—it is showing up in persons who have not been exposed to it in hospitals. This type of MRSA is known as community-associated MRSA or CA-MRSA. Mainly, it shows up as causes of boils and abscesses, sometimes mistaken for spider bites, which used to be drained and medicated with methicillin; now, however, the methicillin no longer works in many cases. In fact, some strains of MRSA also are resistant to all of the “cillin” drugs and to most other antimicrobials, warned Daniel Jernigan, chief of the Epidemiology Section at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, Atlanta, GA). Jernigan spoke at the 9th Richard J. Duma/Annual Symposium and Press Conference on Infectious Disease, held July 14 by NFID at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.
Jernigan said that CA-MRSA was found in 9% of “staph” infection cases in Maryland, 12% in Minnesota, and as many as 30% of such cases in Hawaii. He noted that physicians rarely take cultures from the lesions—they just lance and treat them. Fortunately, CA-MRSA currently is not resistant to some of the less-used antibiotics.
Transmission factors for CA-MRSA, Jernigan explained, include crowding, skin-to-skin contact, compromised skin, contaminated surfaces, and lack of cleanliness (the five “C’s). This might explain why this type of microbe often is found in institutions such as prisons, at military installations, or at sports establishments. Also, MRSA often is transmitted by persons who have it in their noses, but are themselves asymptomatic.
Here is the kicker: CA-MRSA turns out to be a genetic mutation from MRSA found in hospitals. This was found through a process known as post-field electrophoresis (PFEP), by which the molecular fingerprint of CA-MRSA was obtained. The CA-MRSA strains produce a toxin that MRSA in hospitals does not produce. CA-MRSA, however, now seems to be invading hospitals.
Jernigan noted that currently, doxycycline still works against CA-MRSA, but before it is administered, the attending physician should obtain a full culture. In addition, CDC has issued some guidelines for dealing with prison- and sports-related CA-MRSA.
The Green Baron’s question: How many other drug-resistant microbes are getting into the community at large and picking up genetic mutations by which they differ from those found in hospitals?
CARBON DIOXIDE REDUCTION
Remember the Kyoto Protocol (KP), signed in Kyoto, Japan, in December 1997, by a multitude of nations? One more nation needs to ratify for the KP to become binding in international law. Recently, it appeared that the Russian Federation would be that “one more”, but so far, Russia has been dragging its feet. The KP’s provisions call for reducing carbon dioxide levels in the Earth’s atmosphere to levels lower than they were in 1990. The objective is to stop a trend toward global climate warming that could be caused in large measure by elevated levels of carbon dioxide. The economic costs could be very heavy. Some nations, such as India and China, were granted a temporary exemption, but they, too, will have to comply with the KP later in the 21st century if and when the treaty becomes legally binding.
Then-Vice President Al Gore also signed onto the KP. The U.S. Senate, however, failed, by a large margin, to ratify it. However, it is possible that ultimately, the United States will come to comply with the KP de facto. For example, the states of California, Connecticut, Iowa, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin, together with New York City, are suing some the largest American electric power companies to try to force them to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide. The plaintiffs contend that curtailing carbon dioxide emissions could help avert an environmental catastrophe.
The City of New York claims, through Corporation Counsel Michael Cardozo, that global warming could lead to flooding of John F. Kennedy International Airport or of the Holland and Lincoln tunnels (the argument is that world water levels would rise as the world climate warms and polar ice caps melt). Other plaintiffs argue that effects of warming already are increasing rates of asthma in young persons and raising populations of disease-carrying insects. See The Washington Post, July 22, 2004, page A22.
In addition, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) is planning regulations aimed at sharply lowering carbon dioxide emissions from motor vehicles. CARB officials estimate that the cost of many vehicles could rise by as much as $1,000 to furnish the technology to comply with these regulations. Vehicle makers claim that the cost per vehicle would be considerably higher and that the regulations may be beyond the automotive technological state of the art.
In sum, perhaps the United States will come to comply with the provisions of the KP, not because of treaty ratification by the Senate, but through regulatory and judicial activism.
WHAT IS BOOTSTRAP PRESS?
Bootstrap Press is a nonprofit organization founded in Bethesda, Maryland, U.S.A., to promote the development and management of technology and businesses based on renewable resources. We also encourage the preservation of our Earth's natural habitats and its plant and animal species. So do a lot of other organizations, and more power to them for doing so!
Bootstrap Press is different because its members believe that the development of renewable resources and the preservation of habitats and species are receiving far more lip service than the financial and technical support needed to achieve these goals. We also think they will continue to be subjects of more talk than action until someone can show how renewable resources and the diversity of biological species can be the basis for potentially profitable businesses as well as a matter of ethics. Bootstrap Press intends to provide a forum for the discussion of how to build up such business, and of related topics.
There's one more thing we should mention about Muenchhausen and Bootstrap Press. We try to present only the scientific and technical facts that are correct to the best of our knowledge, belief, and good faith. It is up to Muenchhausen's readers to draw their own conclusions and make their own judgments.
NOTE: The mention of a product or service in MUENCHHAUSEN is in no way to be regarded as an endorsement of that product or service by MUENCHHAUSEN, Bootstrap Press, The Green Baron, or any other contributor to MUENCHHAUSEN.
AN ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER ABOUT ENVIRONMENT,
RENEWABLE RESOURCE TECHNOLOGY,
AND RELATED TOPICS
By BOOTSTRAP PRESS, INC.
BETHESDA, MD
GREENBARON@CSI.COM
=================================================================
JULY 27, 2004
=================================================================
WELCOME!
The Green Baron welcomes one and all who take the time to read Muenchhausen. He aims to “tell it like it is” as much as possible, and avoid advocacy and ideological positions. There are enough of those to go around in other publications.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The Green Baron again thanks all those who make it possible to meet, and ask questions of many distinguished people of our times. For this issue, he thanks the staff members of the Embassies of Serbia and Montenegro, and Albania for hosting press conferences the Green Baron was invited to attend July 21. Thanks also are given to Mr. Peter Hickman of the National Press Club, Washington, DC, who so ably organizes many of these conferences. In addition, the Green Baron expresses gratitude to the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID, Bethesda, MD) for inviting him to conferences that offer much new insight into microbial resistance against pharmaceuticals.
ANTIBIOTICS AS SOIL CONTAMINANTS?
Yes, they could be, says Heather Dion of the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, University of Georgia (Aiken, SC). She reminded the 2004 Annual Conference on Antimicrobial Resistance that perhaps more than 20 million kilograms (kg)—that’s 20,000 metric tons (tonnes) of antibiotics and antimicrobials are administered each year to livestock. Many of these pharmaceuticals (“pharmas”) are used to promote animal growth as well as to combat bacterial diseases. Perhaps as many as 10 antimicrobials are used. Dion noted that the specific drugs used are difficult to ascertain, because this often is proprietary information. The conference, by the way, was sponsored by NFID and held in Bethesda, MD, in late June. The Green Baron was invited to hear some of the presentations there.
Because so much of these pharmas are used, or overused, perhaps, first of all, they often tend to lead to the development of resistance by microbes against these drugs. In addition, the heavy use of such drugs in feedlots, for instance, must mean that at some point, they migrate into the environment, particularly into waterways and soils. Could it be that some of those antimicrobials in the environment cause resistance to develop among microbes found there, too? Also, from the chemical standpoint, what might be the environmental fate of these drugs?
Dion and her colleagues tested tetracycline, a commonly used antibiotic, as a model compound, to trace its fate and transport. This antimicrobial is in high commercial use against human infectious diseases, and it also is used to promote animal growth. Its molecular structure may be found at http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/motm/tetracycline/mol.htm. A glance at its structure suggests that it has a strong dipole moment and thus could form complexes with, and bind to ions and minerals in water and soils.
If such binding takes place, could it be that tetracycline (or another antibiotic) becomes a persistent contaminant in the environment? Dion set up an experiment in which tetracycline was treated with soil minerals such as muscovite, kaolinite (a form of clay), and smectite in water. The soil:solution ratio was 1:10, and the tetracycline concentration range was 1 part per million (ppm) to 1,000 ppm. After a period of mixing, the supernatant water was analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). It should be noted that although muscovite and kaolinite presented surface areas of 4 and 8 square meters per gram (m2/g), respectively, smectite presented a surface area of 87 m2/g, more than 10 times that of kaolinite.
The Green Baron won’t go into all of the particulars, because whole papers can be written about this subject. However, tetracycline was exposed to several cations (metal ions dissolved in water), and was found to form complexes with metals such as sodium, potassium, and copper in liquid phase. These showed up through analysis by a variant of ion mass spectrometry called IMS-MS. From results of these analyses and analysis of tetracycline’s sorption in soils, it may eventually be possible to get a “handle” on biological and environmental activity. For example, if tetracycline persists in soils and water, might pathogenic bacteria in the environment develop resistance to it? This is what researchers want to find out, as well as to learn just how much pharmaceutical material is lodged in the environment.
Although Dion and her team worked with tetracycline, they also found that a variety of antibiotic residues may be found. She notes, for example, “A variety of antibiotic residues is found in commercial poultry litter.” Perhaps this is why some countries, such as Sweden, have mandated stopping use of antibiotics for livestock, except for the express purpose of curing disease.
MORE CHANGES IN STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS
Methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) not only is going out to the community—it is showing up in persons who have not been exposed to it in hospitals. This type of MRSA is known as community-associated MRSA or CA-MRSA. Mainly, it shows up as causes of boils and abscesses, sometimes mistaken for spider bites, which used to be drained and medicated with methicillin; now, however, the methicillin no longer works in many cases. In fact, some strains of MRSA also are resistant to all of the “cillin” drugs and to most other antimicrobials, warned Daniel Jernigan, chief of the Epidemiology Section at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, Atlanta, GA). Jernigan spoke at the 9th Richard J. Duma/Annual Symposium and Press Conference on Infectious Disease, held July 14 by NFID at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.
Jernigan said that CA-MRSA was found in 9% of “staph” infection cases in Maryland, 12% in Minnesota, and as many as 30% of such cases in Hawaii. He noted that physicians rarely take cultures from the lesions—they just lance and treat them. Fortunately, CA-MRSA currently is not resistant to some of the less-used antibiotics.
Transmission factors for CA-MRSA, Jernigan explained, include crowding, skin-to-skin contact, compromised skin, contaminated surfaces, and lack of cleanliness (the five “C’s). This might explain why this type of microbe often is found in institutions such as prisons, at military installations, or at sports establishments. Also, MRSA often is transmitted by persons who have it in their noses, but are themselves asymptomatic.
Here is the kicker: CA-MRSA turns out to be a genetic mutation from MRSA found in hospitals. This was found through a process known as post-field electrophoresis (PFEP), by which the molecular fingerprint of CA-MRSA was obtained. The CA-MRSA strains produce a toxin that MRSA in hospitals does not produce. CA-MRSA, however, now seems to be invading hospitals.
Jernigan noted that currently, doxycycline still works against CA-MRSA, but before it is administered, the attending physician should obtain a full culture. In addition, CDC has issued some guidelines for dealing with prison- and sports-related CA-MRSA.
The Green Baron’s question: How many other drug-resistant microbes are getting into the community at large and picking up genetic mutations by which they differ from those found in hospitals?
CARBON DIOXIDE REDUCTION
Remember the Kyoto Protocol (KP), signed in Kyoto, Japan, in December 1997, by a multitude of nations? One more nation needs to ratify for the KP to become binding in international law. Recently, it appeared that the Russian Federation would be that “one more”, but so far, Russia has been dragging its feet. The KP’s provisions call for reducing carbon dioxide levels in the Earth’s atmosphere to levels lower than they were in 1990. The objective is to stop a trend toward global climate warming that could be caused in large measure by elevated levels of carbon dioxide. The economic costs could be very heavy. Some nations, such as India and China, were granted a temporary exemption, but they, too, will have to comply with the KP later in the 21st century if and when the treaty becomes legally binding.
Then-Vice President Al Gore also signed onto the KP. The U.S. Senate, however, failed, by a large margin, to ratify it. However, it is possible that ultimately, the United States will come to comply with the KP de facto. For example, the states of California, Connecticut, Iowa, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin, together with New York City, are suing some the largest American electric power companies to try to force them to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide. The plaintiffs contend that curtailing carbon dioxide emissions could help avert an environmental catastrophe.
The City of New York claims, through Corporation Counsel Michael Cardozo, that global warming could lead to flooding of John F. Kennedy International Airport or of the Holland and Lincoln tunnels (the argument is that world water levels would rise as the world climate warms and polar ice caps melt). Other plaintiffs argue that effects of warming already are increasing rates of asthma in young persons and raising populations of disease-carrying insects. See The Washington Post, July 22, 2004, page A22.
In addition, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) is planning regulations aimed at sharply lowering carbon dioxide emissions from motor vehicles. CARB officials estimate that the cost of many vehicles could rise by as much as $1,000 to furnish the technology to comply with these regulations. Vehicle makers claim that the cost per vehicle would be considerably higher and that the regulations may be beyond the automotive technological state of the art.
In sum, perhaps the United States will come to comply with the provisions of the KP, not because of treaty ratification by the Senate, but through regulatory and judicial activism.
WHAT IS BOOTSTRAP PRESS?
Bootstrap Press is a nonprofit organization founded in Bethesda, Maryland, U.S.A., to promote the development and management of technology and businesses based on renewable resources. We also encourage the preservation of our Earth's natural habitats and its plant and animal species. So do a lot of other organizations, and more power to them for doing so!
Bootstrap Press is different because its members believe that the development of renewable resources and the preservation of habitats and species are receiving far more lip service than the financial and technical support needed to achieve these goals. We also think they will continue to be subjects of more talk than action until someone can show how renewable resources and the diversity of biological species can be the basis for potentially profitable businesses as well as a matter of ethics. Bootstrap Press intends to provide a forum for the discussion of how to build up such business, and of related topics.
There's one more thing we should mention about Muenchhausen and Bootstrap Press. We try to present only the scientific and technical facts that are correct to the best of our knowledge, belief, and good faith. It is up to Muenchhausen's readers to draw their own conclusions and make their own judgments.
NOTE: The mention of a product or service in MUENCHHAUSEN is in no way to be regarded as an endorsement of that product or service by MUENCHHAUSEN, Bootstrap Press, The Green Baron, or any other contributor to MUENCHHAUSEN.
posted by Green_Baron00 @ 5:29 PM
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