Page 165 - CW E-Magazine (1-7-2025)

News from Abroad

to improve meat production; bacteria found that despite a seasonal drop in treating common infections and to safely
can also acquire resistance directly by the amount of antibiotics prescribed in carry out surgical procedures. The main
swapping genes with resistant microbes years 2017-19 and lower amounts of focus globally on combatting AMR has
in the environment. antibiotic drugs identified in waste- been to reduce the amount of antibiotics
water, there was no corresponding used, but our research findings show that
Researchers from the University’s drop in the levels of AMR genes in the this alone might not be enough to tackle
Department of Chemistry, Centre of environment. the problem. Once resistance genes are
Excellence in Water-Based Early- out there in the environment, they can
Warning Systems for Health Pro- In 2020, a significant reduction in be transferred between bacteria, mak-
tection (CWBE) and Institute of Sus- antibiotics and AMR genes was ob- ing more and more of them resistant to
tainability and Climate Change worked served during lockdowns due to COVID treatment with antibiotics. This is really
with Wessex Water to track the use of pandemic social distancing measures worrying because we had previously
antibiotics and the presence of genes that lead to the reduction in the spread assumed that less usage would result
linked to AMR in the environment by of resistant bacteria. After lockdowns, in less AMR, but our results show the
analysing wastewater. They took sam- when social interactions increased, problem is more complex than that.”
ples from four wastewater treatment both antibiotic presence/prescription
plants in southwest England over two and AMR genes increased indicating The researchers suggest that govern-
years during the COVID-19 pandemic increased pathogen spread by infected ments and policymakers must take
and compared them with previous data individuals. a ‘One Health’ approach to tackling
collected before 2019. AMR – not just looking at how antibio-
Prof. Barbara Kasprzyk-Hordern, tics are used in human health, but also
They matched these data with the Director of CWBE, said, “The spread of how they are used in animals and the
number of prescriptions for antibio- antimicrobial resistance is a huge threat effects of antibiotics on the wider
tics during the same time period. They to all our lives – we rely on antibiotics for environment.

SENSOR-BASED OFFERINGS

Saint-Gobain bolsters digital construction chemicals
platform with Danish acquisition

Saint-Gobain, a French multina- industry initiated by GCP with Verifi, its
tional group that offers materials and digital in-transit concrete management
solutions to the construction sector, suite. Verifi uses real-time monitoring
has expanded its digital construction to reduce waste, improve operational
chemicals platform with the acquisition performance and drive cost efficiencies.
of Maturix, a Denmark-based provider Saint-Gobain said Maturix complements
of real-time monitoring solutions for Verifi in optimising concrete placement
the concrete industry. on site. The two companies are already
working on a joint offering.
Maturix offers wireless sensor of structural performance. Maturix and
technology, which allows remote re- Saint-Gobain have successfully collabo- “By combining the data and digi-
al-time monitoring of concrete prop- rated since 2019. tal expertise of Maturix and Verifi with
erties during the curing and hardening Saint-Gobain’s leadership in concrete
process, enabling contractors to opti- This acquisition enhances Saint- admixtures, we will unlock new use cases
mise their operations and ease tracea- Gobain’s digital solutions offering for the Group’s customers. We will
bility requirements. This reduces the across the concrete and cement value provide them with personalised recom-
duration of the concrete construction chains, enabling the group’s customers mendations to manage their operations
cycle by up to 50% and improves job- to reduce overdesign and optimise ope- with increased visibility and precision
site efficiency, all while improving con- rations. Saint-Gobain spearheaded the to reduce their costs and environmental
crete quality and ensuring a high level digital transformation of the concrete impact,” said Sid Singh, CEO of Verifi.

Chemical Weekly July 1, 2025 165

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