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A big challenge in modern wastewater treatment is the removal of micropollutants and multiresistant bacteria (MRB). Micropollutants, which includes such things as pesticides, pharmaceuticals, personal care products, food additives, and hormones, are dangerous for the environment and human health as we have previously reported. MRBs, and their antibiotic resistant genes (ARG), have been rated as a global health threat by the World Health Organization. Modern wastewater treatment plants are fairly effective at reducing the total number of MRBs, but it turns out they may also help select particular highly resistant strains that make it through the processing and they are only moderately successful at removing micropollutants. To address these new threats, many treatment facilities are discussing adding an additional treatment step. One of the more promising treatments being implemented is the use of ozone because it is economically feasible, and it significantly abates micropollutants.
What is largely unknown is the effect of ozonation on MRBs. Ozone is a strong oxidant and disinfectant and it is very effective on organic materials. A group of Swiss researchers investigated the extent that ozone kills MRBs and destroys ARGs when applied at the levels implemented by wastewater treatment plants. They performed laboratory experiments, and also took samples from a wastewater treatment plant. Their results are presented in a paper [Paywalled] in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. In the lab they found ozonation to be very effective at disrupting ARGs, but unfortunately it was not effective when applied to the secondary effluent at a treatment facility. What this means is that the new ozonation systems being implemented to deal with micropollutants, although they have much potential, will not be effective against antibiotic resistant bacteria.
Inactivation of Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria and Resistance Genes by Ozone: From Laboratory Experiments to Full-Scale Wastewater Treatment [DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.6b02640][DX]
(Score: 3, Informative) by Thesis on Thursday December 01 2016, @01:38PM
I am intimately familiar with water treatment. Ozone generation is expensive, and dangerous. Chlorination is the preferred method of most treatment plants for disinfection. This is simply due to cost more than anything.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 01 2016, @08:08PM
Hopefully with the end of Obama's reign of tyranny, we will see a return to prayer to solve our water sterilization problems. Remember people, germ theory is *just a theory*.