Richard Honour

Richard Honour

May 01, 2015

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Silent Spring of Sewage Sludge

The perceptive article below tells us that human beings are not simply just another organism, but that we are an ecosystem, not to be trifled with.

While on the one hand we study toxic sewage sludge, laced with every antimicrobial agent known to man, plus every infectious agent that plagues us, on the other hand we fish in those same waters to discover the next new antibiotic, specifically for the treatment of antibiotic-resistant infections.

That's the way it is, and Ali (Author below) directs us to Martin Blaser, who makes the point well: There is a high price to pay for intended or unintended exposure to antibiotics, whether developed for use by beast or man.

This article and the Book (Missing Microbes) inform us of the extreme dangers lurking in toxic sewage sludges spread in our forests and on our farms and rangelands, both as antibiotics and as infectious agents, and the adverse consequences thereof. It must be our secret alone, because local, county, state and federal agencies still don't get it, even by Executive Order.

Yes, we need new antibiotics, because they save lots of lives, but no, we do not need them in our living environment, because they are killing us.

Long ago and far away (early 1980s), when I was developing a DNA-based rapid diagnostic test for this same H. pylori of which Blaser speaks, whether by sloppy technique or misstep, I contracted the worst imaginable strain of that same microbe, which was obtained from the Barry Marshall mentioned below, so I know of what he speaks. I survived. rch

Bacteria make us human

The Lancet, Volume 385, No. 9979, p1718, 2 May 2015

Mohsin Ali

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(15)60879-0

In the hierarchy of biological organisation, human beings have traditionally been classified as organisms. Infectious disease physician and researcher Martin Blaser disagrees. He views the human body as an ecosystem, "much like a coral reef or a tropical jungle, a complex organization composed of interacting life-forms." These life-forms include many bacteria, archaea, viruses, and fungi - collectively termed the human microbiota - without which we would not survive.

Diversity is critical to any ecosystem. In Missing Microbes, Blaser argues that overuse of antibiotics, as well as other modern medical and quasi-medical practices are devastating our inner ecosystem. These changes to our microbial makeup, he suggests, underlie a range of "modern plagues." which include obesity, childhood diabetes, asthma, hay fever, food allergies and coeliac disease. Blaser, who heads New York University's Human Microbiome Program and was recently named one of TIME Magazine's 100 Most Influential People 2015, focuses on Helicobacter pylori, a bacterium he has been studying for about three decades, to illustrate this "missing microbiota" hypothesis.

He begins by describing the work of Australian physicians Barry Marshall and Robin Warren, who showed H pylori could cause gastritis and peptic ulcers, for which they won the 2005 Nobel Prize. H pylori was later shown to also cause gastric cancer, in part supported by findings from Blaser's research. "No wonder doctors around the world began to believe that 'the only good Helicobacter pylori is a dead one,'" he writes, describing how physicians prescribe antibiotics to eliminate H pylori in patients with gastrointestinal symptoms.

But Blaser began to question this mantra. This organism - which has coevolved with us over millennia and is found virtually nowhere except the human stomach - must be there for some purpose, he reasoned. He did epidemiological research on the associations between H pylori and several diseases, the incidence of which has risen in the past few decades - including gastro-oesophageal reflux disease, oesophogeal adenocarcinoma, asthma, and allergic rhinitis - and found that presence of H pylori was inversely associated with these diseases. For Blaser, these findings, which have been replicated by other research groups, underscore the notion of amphibiosis - where two life forms interact either symbiotically or parasitically, depending on context. Overuse of antibiotics is eliminating H pylori and "many microbes from our ancestral bacterial heritage," he writes, and "an ecological shift of this magnitude…must have many consequences, good and bad."

Nor is the problem exclusively medical. In the USA, most antibiotics are not consumed by people. Rather, about 70–80% of antibiotics sold are used in subtherapeutic doses to fatten farm animals. This practice of "growth promotion" was banned in the Europe Union some years ago, Blaser explains, and works by altering the animals' microbiomes. And because "farmers give animals the same drugs that people get from their doctors," bacteria develop resistance to them. For Blaser this raises a troubling question: "If receiving antibiotics at a young age fattens up farm animals, changing their development, then might that be analogous to what happens when we give our children antibiotics?" This is an area, among others, that Blaser is investigating.

How, then, to retain the benefits of antibiotics while minimising collateral damage to our resident microbes? Blaser proposes potential solutions, including microbiota transfers from healthy hosts. He argues that growth promotion should be outlawed. In addition, he calls for greater investment in methods to curb antibiotic resistance, such as developing rapid, accurate diagnostic tests and risk prediction tools, as well as more narrow-spectrum antibiotics, which will also help preserve our microbiota. Recently, high-level political attention has been given to antibiotic resistance by the US and UK Governments, including the White House's recent National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic-resistant Bacteria.

Overall, in Missing Microbes, Blaser deftly weaves story-telling with exposition to present an accessible, engaging argument for the missing microbiota hypothesis. Importantly, he carefully distinguishes his speculations from statements supported by research, indicating that many gaps remain in our understanding of the microbiota's role in human health and disease. In many ways, Missing Microbes echoes Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. Like Carson, Blaser's rhetoric is ecological. In 1962, the year her book was published, Carson commented on the discovery that thalidomide caused deformities in babies. Her assessment captures an undercurrent of Blaser's book, which uses thalidomide as an analogy for the potential dangers of our modern over-reliance on antibiotics. "It is all of a piece," she said, "thalidomide and pesticides - they represent our willingness to rush ahead and use something new without knowing what the results are going to be."

The White House, 2015. Executive order - combating antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/09/18/executive-order-combating-antibiotic-resistant-bacteria; Sept 19, 2014. (accessed April 22, 2015)View in Article

The White House, 2015. National action plan for combating antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The White House, Washington, DC; 2015View in Article

Food and Drug Administration Center for Veterinary Medicine, 2014 2012 summary report on antimicrobials sold or distributed for use in food-producing animals. Food and Drug Administration, Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, DC; 2014View in Article

Foxman and Rosenthal, 2013. Foxman, B and Rosenthal, M. Implications of the human microbiome project for epidemiology. Am J Epidemiol. 2013; 177: 197–201.

Laxminarayan et al., 2013. Laxminarayan, R, Duse, A, Wattal, C et al. Antibiotic resistance - the need for global solutions. Lancet Infect Dis. 2013; 13: 1057–1098.

Any questions?

Who could even discover and describe all of the antibiotics in this fresh pile?

Much less what's in it!

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About This Project

The Precautionary Group

We've discovered a few new mushrooms thriving in this harsh environment of land-disposed sewage sludge in Snoqualmie, Washington. We're testing these mushrooms for new antimicrobial properties. Microbes that survive exposure to toxic sewage sludge engage adaptive mechanisms that transform toxins into secondary metabolites.

Blast off!

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