Environmental chemicals and the effects of antibiotic resistance in the oral cavity

As the world of agriculture has advanced technologically, there have been other risk factors that need to be assessed. One of these risk factors is how the increased use of herbicides is impacting the health of the people that are consuming these crops. Herbicides are used in an attempt to increase the yield of crops but only moderately do so. Furthermore, at what cost does this moderate increase come to the health of those who are exposed to these chemicals. Low level chronic exposure of herbicides could lead to adverse health problems in humans. This study was done with the intention of identifying if chronic exposure to glyphosate could lead to antibiotic resistance in Streptococcus mutans which is found within the human mouth. The results were inconclusive so it cannot be determined from this study whether there was an affect from chronic exposure of glyphosate on S. mutans. More studies need to be done to reach a conclusion.