food-chain-contamination
Food-chain contamination refers to the transfer and accumulation of harmful substances—such as heavy metals, pesticides, or pathogens—through successive trophic levels, beginning with their uptake by plants at the base of the food web. Plants play a critical role in this process, as they absorb contaminants from soil and water through their root systems, concentrating these substances in their tissues. Understanding how plants take up, transport, and store pollutants is essential for assessing risks to ecosystems and human health, and for developing strategies like phytoremediation to mitigate contamination.
PubMed · 2026-02-15
Researchers mapped how antibiotics move through city sewer systems, finding that veterinary and shared human-veterinary antibiotics are the most common, with one antibiotic (Ofloxacin) posing measurable ecological risk near hospitals. Antibiotics from livestock appear to reach sewers through the food chain, not just direct discharge.
Shared human-and-veterinary antibiotics averaged 378 ng/L in sewer water, roughly 7 times higher than veterinary-only antibiotics at 52.6 ng/L.
Ofloxacin posed medium ecological risk (risk quotient 0.1–1.0) in sewers near hospitals, the only antibiotic to cross that threshold.
Strong statistical links between veterinary and human-veterinary antibiotic loads suggest livestock farming is transferring antibiotic residues into urban sewers via the food chain.