Antibiotics in rice paddy soil raise methylmercury production
A peer-reviewed study in Nature Communications reports that fluoroquinolone antibiotics in rice paddy soils increase the production of methylmercury, a neurotoxic form of mercury.
The authors attribute the rise to more active mercury-methylating bacteria, especially fluoroquinolone-tolerant sulfate-reducing bacteria. The study links common antibiotic pollution to a neurotoxin building up in paddy fields. Rice is a staple food in parts of southern Africa, so the finding raises a food-safety question. Only a short abstract was available, so the sample size, the locations and the size of the effect are not known.