Wastewater-Based Epidemiology for Monitoring the Health Status and Practices of Populations: Recent Advances and Perspectives

Dear Colleagues,

Raw wastewater is a complex matrix containing a wide range of indicators of human activities. Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) postulates that indicator concentrations in wastewater allow for the back-calculation of consumption, use or exposure to a wide variety of indicators. The proportionality between concentrations and uses, which is mandatory to talk about WBEs, presents constraints both in sampling and in understanding the stability or degradation pathways of the indicators used. The first studies concerned illicit drugs, then legal drugs (alcohol, tobacco) and then new markers, with an increasing diversity (pharmaceuticals, pesticides, etc.), appeared.

Recently, additional approaches were brought to WBE, through (i) the Covid-19 pandemic highlighting the potential of WBE for mining public health information based on biological and biomolecular approaches in wastewater, and (ii) noticing that the spatial dynamics of certain markers in wastewater could be linked to socio-economic profiles and spatial inequalities, paving the way for wastewater-based sociological studies. These important research efforts strongly expand the potential of WBE by local authorities.

In this Special Issue, we invite papers presenting research findings in the global framework of WBE. Beyond the scientific novelty of the presented results, the authors should emphasize the potential of their work to alter WBE practices in the future. Both laboratory and field experimental works will be considered.

The theme of the SI is devoted to the recent advances of WBE in general. Among the topics of interest, specific attention will be given to papers related to:

• Development of experiments to strengthen the correction factor to back-calculate the use of markers based on wastewater concentrations with better reproducibility (e.g. stability assessment, solid/water partition, etc.);
• Exploration of new indicators allowing the back-calculation of innovative practice/exposition;
• Specific-event-based approach linked to uses/exposures by populations;
• Addressing the challenges around sampling, data normalization and analytical procedures specific to WBE;

Sociological and/or political examples or concerns in the use of WBE outputs.

Dr. Jeremy Jacob
Prof. Dr. Régis Moilleron
Dr. Thomas Thiebault
Guest Editors

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• wastewater-based epidemiology
• illicit drugs
• pharmaceuticals and personal care products
• exposition
• uses
• practices, population health