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Review
. 2021 Apr 1;10(4):374.
doi: 10.3390/antibiotics10040374.

Potential Environmental and Human Health Risks Caused by Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria (ARB), Antibiotic Resistance Genes (ARGs) and Emerging Contaminants (ECs) from Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Landfill

Uttpal Anand  1 , Bhaskar Reddy  2 , Vipin Kumar Singh  3 , Amit Kishore Singh  4 , Kavindra Kumar Kesari  5 , Pooja Tripathi  6 , Pradeep Kumar  7 , Vijay Tripathi  1 , Jesus Simal-Gandara  8
Affiliations
Review

Potential Environmental and Human Health Risks Caused by Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria (ARB), Antibiotic Resistance Genes (ARGs) and Emerging Contaminants (ECs) from Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Landfill

Uttpal Anand et al. Antibiotics (Basel). .

Abstract

The disposal of municipal solid waste (MSW) directly at landfills or open dump areas, without segregation and treatment, is a significant concern due to its hazardous contents of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB), antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), and metal resistance genes (MGEs). The released leachate from landfills greatly effects the soil physicochemical, biological, and groundwater properties associated with agricultural activity and human health. The abundance of ARB, ARGs, and MGEs have been reported worldwide, including MSW landfill sites, animal husbandry, wastewater, groundwater, soil, and aerosol. This review elucidates the occurrence and abundance of ARB, ARGs, and MRGs, which are regarded as emerging contaminants (ECs). Recently, ECs have received global attention because of their prevalence in leachate as a substantial threat to environmental and public health, including an economic burden for developing nations. The present review exclusively discusses the demands to develop a novel eco-friendly management strategy to combat these global issues. This review also gives an intrinsic discussion about the insights of different aspects of environmental and public health concerns caused due to massive leachate generation, the abundance of antibiotics resistance (AR), and the effects of released leachate on the various environmental reservoirs and human health. Furthermore, the current review throws light on the source and fate of different ECs of landfill leachate and their possible impact on the nearby environments (groundwater, surface water, and soil) affecting human health. The present review strongly suggests the demand for future research focuses on the advancement of the removal efficiency of contaminants with the improvement of relevant landfill management to reduce the potential effects of disposable waste. We propose the necessity of the identification and monitoring of potential environmental and human health risks associated with landfill leachate contaminants.

Keywords: antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs); antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB); bioaerosol; groundwater; human health; landfill leachate; metal resistance genes (MRGs); municipal solid waste (MSW); soil.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Sources of antibiotics in the landfill system and their mechanisms to adopt an antibiotics resistance (AR) through horizontal gene transfer (HGT). ARGs: antibiotic resistance genes.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Wastes releases from households, agriculture sites, animal husbandry, and industries accumulate in the municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill, which, finally, affects the surface or groundwater level through leachate percolation. The overall perspective of contaminations through various sources defines the groundwater contaminations in the proposed model.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Flow diagram showing the possible pathway for the pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) and endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) to enter into landfill sites from different sources (domestic waste, animal husbandry, aquaculture, poultry farm, and sewage) and contaminate the different environmental compartments, such as drinking water, groundwater, agricultural soil, and the food chain.
Figure 4
Figure 4
The diagram explains the dissemination of airborne bacterial pathogens during the loading and unloading of garbage vehicles and the spread of ARB from open MSW landfill sites and MSW treatment plants to the nearby human population.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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