Wastewater-based epidemiology for comprehensive communitywide exposome surveillance: A gradient of metals exposure

Community wastewater surveillance is an established means to measure health threats. Exposure to toxic metals as one of the key environmental contaminants has been attracting public health attention as exposure can be related to contamination across air, water, and soil as well as associated with individual factors. This research uses Jefferson County, Kentucky, as an urban exposome case study to analyze sub-county metal concentrations in wastewater as a possible indicator of community toxicant exposure risk, and to test the feasibility of using wastewater to identify potential community areas of elevated metals exposure. Variability in wastewater metal concentrations were observed across the county; 19 of the 26 sites had one or more metal results greater than one standard deviation above the mean and were designated areas of concern. Additionally, thirteen of the nineteen sites were of increased concern with levels greater than two standard deviations above the mean. This foundational research found variability in several instances between smaller nested upstream contributing neighborhood sewersheds when measured in the associated downstream treatment plant. Wastewater provides an opportunity to look at integrated toxicology to complement other toxicology data, looking at where people live and what toxicants need to be focused on to protect the health of people in that area.