BlueAdapt raises public awareness of health risks

Safety concerns over sewage overflows and drinking water contamination are mounting. BlueAdapt has been contributing to public awareness both on screen and in the press.

In the UK, Channel 4’s investigation ‘Dirty Business‘ has sparked huge conversations about the health risks of water pollution – including the often‑overlooked threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

BlueAdapt’s Prof William Gaze joins leading experts from the University of Exeter and the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (BSAC), warning that we’re still not doing enough to protect people from AMR. Back in 2020, the All‑Party Parliamentary Group on Antibiotics warned that antibiotics are flowing from rivers into the sea, “creating a vicious circle that’s driving resistance and risking more deadly superbugs.” And BSAC’s recommendations to policymakers remain urgent.

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This week, BlueAdapt’s Prof Davey Jones and Prof William Gaze also commented on the state of drinking water across Northern Ireland and beyond. The report by the Guardian and Watershed announces that Lough Neagh, which supplies drinking water for 40% of Northern Ireland, contains genes resistant to last-resort antibiotics.

Our researchers say risks of superbugs are mounting. In the article Prof Davey Jones ‘described sewer networks as a “mega-network of an epic breeding ground” for resistant microbes, and called for better treatment technologies at wastewater plants’.

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