I am going
to do my article on how antibacterial products are creating “superbugs” –
bacteria that are drug resistant.
Bacterial diseases can be stopped
by basic home/body hygiene (using soap, alcohol, bleach, etc). But lately there has be a proliferation of
antibacterial products which have taken they place of the standbys. Soaps and alcohol do their job and then are
dissipated. Antibacterial products leave
active chemicals that linger and kill bacteria, but not all of them and when
these bacteria are placed under a stressor, a small group will develop defense
mechanisms. In other words, what doesn’t
kill you makes you stronger. As a
tolerance for these chemicals develops, there is also a potential to develop a
tolerance to antibiotics – this is known as cross-resistance.
In addition to the creation of resistant
bacteria, these chemicals are present in 60% of America’s streams and rivers
and can cause food contamination. They
are also present in our bodies and the toxic effects are not yet known. There has been insufficient evidence for a
benefit of these antibacterial products over similar ones without them. Essentially healthy people do not need to use
these products, only hospitals and clinics.
I want to do
some close-up images of bacteria. I
would like to use a combination of images found on the web and some that I
take. I really like the idea of taking photos
of everyday images that look similar to bacteria – peas, marbles, cattails,
etc. and altering them to look like the bacteria. I don’t know how I will create the “superbug”
image, but maybe with colors or scale. I
am thinking of using illustrator to illustrate over the images I take to make
them look more like bacteria.
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