Development of wastewater-based epidemiology methods to assess population health

PRESENTER: Mr Phil Choi (QAEHS PhD candidate)

ABSTRACT: Wastewater is akin to a pooled urine sample, and thus contains a wealth of information regarding the chemicals excreted by a population. Wastewater epidemiology has been widely applied to objectively measure illicit and recreational drug use in many populations around the globe. This project, however, aims to develop methods to assess population health outcomes using wastewater epidemiology. We have developed liquid chromatography – tandem mass spectrometry methods to detect "biomarkers" that reflect population health and stress from wastewater; this includes pharmaceuticals such as antidepressants, antihistamines and asthma medications, as well as endogenous and exogenous biomarkers which reflect food consumption, dietary status and physiological stress. Temporal and spatial trends of these biomarkers in wastewater were investigated across a range of cities and towns in Australia. These methods will be validated with urine samples, and relationships between wastewater epidemiology biomarkers and socioeconomic, environmental and medical metrics will also be investigated. We expect that the success of this project depends greatly upon fruitful collaboration with experts from medical and allied health.