Browsing by Author "Tremblay LA"
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- ItemDevelopment and Deployment of a Framework to Prioritize Environmental Contamination Issues(MDPI (Basel, Switzerland), 2020-11-11) Kim ND; Taylor MD; Caldwell J; Rumsby A; Champeau O; Tremblay LAManagement and regulatory agencies face a wide range of environmental issues globally. The challenge is to identify and select the issues to assist the allocation of research and policy resources to achieve maximum environmental gain. A framework was developed to prioritize environmental contamination issues in a sustainable management policy context using a nine-factor ranking model to rank the significance of diffuse sources of stressors. It focuses on contamination issues that involve large geographic scales (e.g., all pastoral soils), significant population exposures (e.g., urban air quality), and multiple outputs from same source on receiving environmental compartments comprising air, surface water, groundwater, and sediment. Factor scores are allocated using a scoring scale and weighted following defined rules. Results are ranked enabling the rational comparison of dissimilar and complex issues. Advantages of this model include flexibility, transparency, ability to prioritize new issues as they arise, and ability to identify which issues are comparatively trivial and which present a more serious challenge to sustainability policy goals. This model integrates well as a planning tool and has been used to inform regional policy development.
- ItemEffects of selected emerging contaminants found in wastewater on antimicrobial resistance and horizontal gene transfer(Elsevier B.V., 2023-08-29) van Hamelsveld S; Jamali-Behnam F; Alderton I; Kurenbach B; McCabe AW; Palmer BR; Gutiérrez-Ginés MJ; Weaver L; Horswell J; Tremblay LA; Heinemann JAThe widespread use of emerging contaminants (ECs) may be compounding the problem of antibiotic resistance. Various non-antibiotic pollutants have been shown to alter bacterial responses to antibiotics and increase horizontal transfer of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) genes. ECs include components of medicines, foods, disinfectants, personal care products and agrichemicals. ECs concentrate in some environments such as in wastewater, where the pollutants and pathogenic microorganisms mix. We investigated the effects on antibiotic resistance and gene transfer of nine ECs and one commercial product formulation (Roundup). We used the bacterium Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium and the antibiotics ampicillin and gentamicin as indicators of the effects of antibiotic-EC co-exposures. We measured intra- (Escherichia coli) and interspecies (E. coli x S. enterica) conjugation frequencies during exposure to ECs. Interestingly, the observed effect could change at different antibiotic concentrations. Exposures to increasing concentrations of ECs was associated with increased conjugative transmission within species, but rarely increased interspecies transmission. We report the first test ever of clotrimazole on AMR and horizontal gene transfer and a newly described effect of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), often used as a solvent for organic compounds.
- ItemThe role of emerging organic contaminants in the development of antimicrobial resistance(KeAi Communications Co. Ltd. Publishing services by Elsevier BV on behalf of KeAi Communications Co Ltd, 2021-08-05) Alderton I; Palmer BR; Heinemann JA; Pattis I; Weaver L; Gutiérrez-Ginés MJ; Horswell J; Tremblay LAAntimicrobial resistance (AMR) threatens human and ecological health worldwide. Unless major changes occur across the human, animal and environmental sectors, the problem will continue to expand. An important component of AMR that deserves greater attention is the influence of emerging organic contaminants (EOCs) – ubiquitous compounds found, amongst others, in pharmaceuticals, personal care products, food, industrial and agricultural products, plastics and building materials. EOCs are widely used and can accumulate in the environment from varied sources, predominantly via waste streams. EOCs can interact with microbial communities potentially leading to the emergence and spread of AMR. Biocides and pharmaceuticals have been demonstrated to promote AMR development. Antimicrobial resistance is a multi-faceted problem that requires input from all sectors, with robust strategies and policies needed to make headway with solving the issues of this important threat.