Flutterby™! : Air Pollution & Antibiotic Resistance

Study Finds Air Pollution May Be Fueling a Rise in Drug-Resistant Infections — Antibiotic resistance spread as a result of air pollution caused 480,000 premature deaths in 2018, the authors estimate.

The paper, published Monday in Lancet Planetary Health, concludes that particulate air pollution (PM2.5), which comes from burning fossil fuels for energy, industrial processes, and transportation, may be one of the largest contributors to the spread of antibiotic resistance worldwide. The link between the two phenomena has strengthened over time, according to the research.