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What toilets can reveal about COVID, cancer and other health threats

Wastewater testing grew tremendously during the pandemic. But is it ready to tackle the opioid crisis, air pollution and antibiotic resistance?
By
  1. Betsy Ladyzhets

    1. Betsy Ladyzhets is a science and health journalist in Brooklyn, New York.

A technician collects a water sample from a sedimentation tank for analysis at a wastewater treatment plant.

Samples of wastewater can be tested for the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, an approach that could become part of routine disease surveillance. Credit: Sevrette/Andia via Alamy

In late 2020, COVID-19’s global death toll was rising as cold weather in the Northern Hemisphere and holiday gatherings spurred rapid transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in the absence of a vaccine. Scientists and public-health officials were desperate for new ways to track the virus, which often moved faster than contact tracers could follow it.

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Nature 628, 492-494 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-01092-7

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 24 April 2024: An earlier version of this News feature incorrectly stated that Tong Zhang and his colleagues at the University of Hong Kong are currently testing wastewater for COVID-19 at 20 sites around the city. This testing is being done by a government team, while Zhang’s team has expanded testing to other public-health concerns.

  • Correction 23 October 2024: An earlier version of this feature misstated the type of genetic material in the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.

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