Pollution from antibiotic factories highlighted as public health risk

Governments and some pharma companies try to tackle problem linked with drug resistance.

When some public-spirited Indian military veterans decided to examine the water quality in the Sirsa and Sutlej rivers, in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh, one of the country’s pharma industry hubs, they made an alarming discovery: samples taken near the drug plants were contaminated with high concentrations of antibiotic residue, including Ciprofloxacin, Ofloxacin, and Azithromycin. That was the finding of India’s National Green Tribunal, which adjudicates environmental cases, when the Veterans Forum for Transparency in Public Life, comprised of retired military officers, asked it to assess the problem.