Wastewater-based epidemiology for public health monitoring

“Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) is an innovative and promising approach which enables information about exposure to external agents and disease in defined population groups to be retrieved from wastewater via the analysis of human metabolic excretion products (called biomarkers). This approach is best described as a large urine test, as the collective wastewater represents anonymous urine samples of thousands of individuals.”

(Citaat: Kasprzyk-Hordern, B., Bijlsma, L., et al. – Wastewater-based epidemiology for public health monitoring – Water & Sewerage Journal 24(2014)4, p.25-26)