Wastewater Surveillance: Protecting Public Health Through Data
A powerful tool for monitoring and insight into the health and safety of a community, wastewater surveillance and sampling provide governments and public sectors with real-time data on emerging disease trends, the potential for outbreaks and other threats lurking in our water.
This allows for governing bodies to make timely decisions and implement public health and environmental measures, protecting not only human health but also one health, the interconnection between the health of people, animals, and the environment.
Wait, What’s the Difference Between Wastewater and Regular Water?
In layman’s terms, wastewater is “used” water. It’s the water that has just gone down your sink, been flushed in the toilet, rinsed from the shower or drained from an industrial process area.
Full of substances and chemicals such as food, beverages, dish/laundry detergents, biological organisms and factory/warehouse pollutants, this type of water requires regulated treatment before being cycled back into our environment.
However, we like to think of the pre-treated water as parts of a puzzle, providing critical clues regarding the health of our communities and what should be done about it.
Why Wastewater Sampling is Important
Through the use of our automatic water samplers (autosamplers for short) in wastewater surveillance, we can detect diseases and other contaminants of emerging concern in the earliest stages possible, long before potential human cases begin popping up in local clinics or hospitals. Indeed, many viruses are detectable in wastewater up to a week before an infected individual shows symptoms.
Wastewater sampling has previously played a crucial role in the detection and monitoring of large epidemics including influenza, norovirus and COVID-19. This data allowed public health officials and other governing bodies to further proactively implement disease testing, vaccination programs and other informed methods of intervention in affected regions.
Monitoring and sampling of wastewater then continue to determine if these campaigns and interventions are effectively controlling the spread of these diseases. The data from ongoing sampling also informs municipal, state/provincial and federal governments which regions should continue to be prioritized in the allocation of resources.
Our Wastewater Sampling Technology
C.E.C. Analytics is proud to provide governments, researchers, healthcare bodies and other water-aligned industries with an efficient, reliable range of automatic water samplers that have been designed to be compact, cost-effective and provide reliable, scientifically sound data.
Through these samplers’ scheduling and collection mechanisms, wastewater samples can be collected at pre-determined intervals, keeping data collection consistent and analysis reporting as close to real-time as possible.
Additional Reading Recommendation: Review our case study on the critical use of water autosamplers in Alberta’s COVID-19 response here.
Partner with C.E.C. Analytics, A Trusted Leader in Water Sampling and Analysis.
At C.E.C. Analytics, we are committed to providing expert water sampling and analysis services to help you meet regulatory requirements and make informed decisions about your water resources.
With our extensive experience and patented technology, we can help you navigate the complex world of water quality monitoring, sampling and data analysis and interpretation.
Contact us today to learn more about our water sampling and analysis solutions.