ABSTRACT
Over the last few decades, environmental pollution and resources depletion threaten sustainable social and economic development. Especially in developing countries, more attention has been paid to fast economic growth and people’s well-being, than to the environmental consequences of a rapid, and many times not well planned, economic development (Prasad 2011). As a result, large amounts of toxic wastes have been dispersed all over the world, the consequence of the increase in world population,
1Departamento de Microbiología y Parasitología, Facultad de Farmacia, Universidad de Sevilla, C/Profesor García González, 2, 41012-Sevilla. 2Centro IFAPA Las Torres-Tomejil. Junta de Andalucía. Carretera Sevilla-Cazalla, Km. 12,2. Apartado Ofi cial, 41200-Alcalá del Río, Sevilla. 3Present address: Área de Microbiología. Colegio de Post-graduados. Campus de Montecillo. Carretera Federal México-Texcoco, Montecillo, México C.P. 56230, Km. 36.5 *Corresponding author: caviedes@us.es
industrialization and urbanization, unsafe residues’ disposal, agricultural practices, oil refi neries, mining and smelting, etc. Global pollution has harmful consequences on natural resources, biodiversity and human health, contributing to the incidence of cancer, degenerative diseases and endocrine disorders (USEPA, Environmental Protection Agency, https://www.usepa. gov; World Health Organization, https://www.who.int).
