Could wastewater analysis be a useful tool for China?: a review
Analysing wastewater samples is an innovative approach that overcomes many limitations of traditional surveys to identify and measure a range of chemicals that were consumed by or exposed to people living in a sewer catchment area. First conceptualised in 2001, much progress has been made to make wa...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2015
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/55487/ |
| _version_ | 1848799172595023872 |
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| author | Gao, Jianfa O'Brien, Jake Lai, Foon Yin van Nuijs, Alexander L.N. He, Jun Mueller, Jochen F. Xu, Jingsha Thai, Phong K. |
| author_facet | Gao, Jianfa O'Brien, Jake Lai, Foon Yin van Nuijs, Alexander L.N. He, Jun Mueller, Jochen F. Xu, Jingsha Thai, Phong K. |
| author_sort | Gao, Jianfa |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Analysing wastewater samples is an innovative approach that overcomes many limitations of traditional surveys to identify and measure a range of chemicals that were consumed by or exposed to people living in a sewer catchment area. First conceptualised in 2001, much progress has been made to make wastewater analysis (WWA) a reliable and robust tool for measuring chemical consumption and/or exposure. At the moment, the most popular application of WWA, sometimes referred as sewage epidemiology, is to monitor the consumption of illicit drugs in communities around the globe, including China. The approach has been largely adopted by law enforcement agencies as a device to monitor the temporal and geographical patterns of drug consumption. In the future, the methodology can be extended to other chemicals including biomarkers of population health (e.g. environmental or oxidative stress biomarkers, lifestyle indicators or medications that are taken by different demographic groups) and pollutants that people are exposed to (e.g. polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, perfluorinated chemicals, and toxic pesticides). The extension of WWA to a huge range of chemicals may give rise to a field called sewage chemical-information mining (SCIM) with unexplored potentials. China has many densely populated cities with thousands of sewage treatment plants which are favourable for applying WWA/SCIM in order to help relevant authorities gather information about illicit drug consumption and population health status. However, there are some prerequisites and uncertainties of the methodology that should be addressed for SCIM to reach its full potential in China. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:31:27Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-55487 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:31:27Z |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-554872018-11-08T13:29:27Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/55487/ Could wastewater analysis be a useful tool for China?: a review Gao, Jianfa O'Brien, Jake Lai, Foon Yin van Nuijs, Alexander L.N. He, Jun Mueller, Jochen F. Xu, Jingsha Thai, Phong K. Analysing wastewater samples is an innovative approach that overcomes many limitations of traditional surveys to identify and measure a range of chemicals that were consumed by or exposed to people living in a sewer catchment area. First conceptualised in 2001, much progress has been made to make wastewater analysis (WWA) a reliable and robust tool for measuring chemical consumption and/or exposure. At the moment, the most popular application of WWA, sometimes referred as sewage epidemiology, is to monitor the consumption of illicit drugs in communities around the globe, including China. The approach has been largely adopted by law enforcement agencies as a device to monitor the temporal and geographical patterns of drug consumption. In the future, the methodology can be extended to other chemicals including biomarkers of population health (e.g. environmental or oxidative stress biomarkers, lifestyle indicators or medications that are taken by different demographic groups) and pollutants that people are exposed to (e.g. polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, perfluorinated chemicals, and toxic pesticides). The extension of WWA to a huge range of chemicals may give rise to a field called sewage chemical-information mining (SCIM) with unexplored potentials. China has many densely populated cities with thousands of sewage treatment plants which are favourable for applying WWA/SCIM in order to help relevant authorities gather information about illicit drug consumption and population health status. However, there are some prerequisites and uncertainties of the methodology that should be addressed for SCIM to reach its full potential in China. Elsevier 2015-01-01 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en cc_by_nc_nd https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/55487/1/2015-Could%20wastewater%20analysis%20be%20a%20useful%20tool%20for%20China.pdf Gao, Jianfa, O'Brien, Jake, Lai, Foon Yin, van Nuijs, Alexander L.N., He, Jun, Mueller, Jochen F., Xu, Jingsha and Thai, Phong K. (2015) Could wastewater analysis be a useful tool for China?: a review. Journal of Environmental Sciences, 27 . pp. 70-79. ISSN 1001-0742 Drug consumption; Wastewater analysis; Biomarkers; Population health https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1001074214002381?via%3Dihub doi:10.1016/j.jes.2014.09.025 doi:10.1016/j.jes.2014.09.025 |
| spellingShingle | Drug consumption; Wastewater analysis; Biomarkers; Population health Gao, Jianfa O'Brien, Jake Lai, Foon Yin van Nuijs, Alexander L.N. He, Jun Mueller, Jochen F. Xu, Jingsha Thai, Phong K. Could wastewater analysis be a useful tool for China?: a review |
| title | Could wastewater analysis be a useful tool for China?: a review |
| title_full | Could wastewater analysis be a useful tool for China?: a review |
| title_fullStr | Could wastewater analysis be a useful tool for China?: a review |
| title_full_unstemmed | Could wastewater analysis be a useful tool for China?: a review |
| title_short | Could wastewater analysis be a useful tool for China?: a review |
| title_sort | could wastewater analysis be a useful tool for china?: a review |
| topic | Drug consumption; Wastewater analysis; Biomarkers; Population health |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/55487/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/55487/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/55487/ |