The large quantities of discarded antibiotics in Hong Kong’s landfills pose a pollution problem and a potential hazard to public health and ocean life, a new study by a Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) scholar says.

The team was led by Dr Chung Shan-shan, Programme Director of the Master of Science in Environmental and Public Health Management, and Senior Lecturer of the Department of Biology. The team collected leachate, which is the liquid that drains or “leaches” from a landfill, from three landfills in Hong Kong to examine the pollution levels leaching from those sites. The results showed that in general the leachates contain human antibiotics and some samples have quantities resulting in the possible development of antibiotics-resistant microorganisms, thus threatening human health. For more details, please visit: https://cpro.hkbu.edu.hk/en/press_release/detail/HKBU-study:-Antibiotics-in-landfills-pose-public-health-risk/