The vital data we flush down the toilet
What’s amazing about sewage is that it’s naturally aggregated and anonymized. Once flushed, your waste is mixing with that of thousands and thousands of people, so there’s actually no way to tie any information from here back to a specific person. – Newsha Ghaeli
Data detective Newsha Ghaeli introduces the concept of wastewater epidemiology and its potential to revolutionize public health.
By analyzing sewage, we can anonymously gather valuable information about our communities’ health, track pandemics in real-time, update social policies and much more.
Table of Contents
- Unseen Potential of Wastewater
- Privacy in Data Collection
- Introduction to Wastewater Epidemiology
- Real-world Impact
- Addressing the Drug Epidemic
- Envisioning a Wastewater-Informed Future
Unseen Potential of Wastewater
Wastewater carries a wealth of information about community health.
Every time we use the toilet, we contribute to a rich dataset that flows into city sewers.
This data can reveal details about infectious diseases, drug consumption patterns and collective microbiomes.
Privacy in Data Collection
The information in wastewater is naturally aggregated and anonymized as it mixes with waste from thousands of others.
It’s impossible to tie any information back to an individual making sewage a perfect source for large-scale data collection without infringing on personal privacy.
