Humans aren’t the only ones who use roads to travel from place to place–superbugs do too! Antibiotic resistant E. Coli is much more common in rural villages situated along roads than in towns located away from them, which suggests that roads play a major role in the spread or containment of antibiotic resistant bacteria, or superbugs.
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As if the recent resurgence of bed bugs wasn’t bad enough, Canadian researchers have found some of the little blood-sucking critters carrying a potentially deadly superbug, and a recent survey has found that Chicago is the fifth-most bed-bug-infested city in the United States. To make matters worse, earlier this year in Boston, researchers found hundreds of natural gas leaks under the streets and sidewalks there. While residents of coast US cities are worried that methane may outgas from the ocean floor, in Boston the methane may arrive from right under their feet!
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The typical American uses 99 gallons of water a day for washing clothes, bathing, toilet-flushing and cooking, and that amount doesn’t even come close to the amount of water used on a daily basis by electrical power plants.
On NPR, Terry Gross interviewed water expert Charles Fishman, author of "The Big Thirst," who says, "The last 100 years has been the golden age of water in the developed world: water that has been safe, unlimited and essentially free. But that era is over. We will not, going forward, have water that has all three of those qualities at the same time: unlimited, unthinkingly inexpensive and safe."
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A skin infection that is resistant to all but the most powerful antibiotics and can be passed by touch has moved from New York City hospitals out into the streets. Dr. Howard Grossman says, “Usually with infections you need a break in the skin to pass it. Not with this. It gets through unbroken skin with casual contact.”
Sam Smith writes in the New York Post that it can cause abscesses, tissue loss, amputation or even death in severe cases. Doctors at some clinics are seeing one new case a week, compared to one every two months a year ago. Dr. Dawn Harbatkin says, “This is something we should be concerned about.”
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