3 ms·
So if I'm reading the article correctly: 1. It doesn't say anything about whether the medications would have been removed if they went through a wastewater tr
by saalweachter 5y ago
So if I'm reading the article correctly:
1. It doesn't say anything about whether the medications would have been removed if they went through a wastewater treatment facility.
2. It's basically saying we accidentally performed a tracking experiment by adding compounds that don't occur (in those levels) naturally to wastewater, and then seeing where we could find those chemicals unexpectedly -- it's like dumping fluorescent dye down your drains to see if you can find it spotting in the yard, but with pharmaceuticals.
- nerpderp82 5y agoCaffeine is often used as that free "marker chemical" for tracing where sewage ends up. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Determination-of-caffeine-as-a-tracer-of-sewage-in-Chen-Pavelic/b866e60242c84938190a2a859e0e143f388dd3b8 https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Determination-of-caffe...
- arsome 5y agoAcesulfame potassium (an artificial sweetener commonly known as Ace-K) which passes through in urine has also been used to determine the concentration of urine in pool water.
- Scoundreller 5y agoWouldn’t that dépend a lot on the consumption of the pool’s entrants?
- Johnny555 5y agoFor a private pool with a few users, sure, one person could skew the results with a diet coke big-gulp, but for a busy public pool with thousands of users, then I'd think that some assumptions about average intake would give reasonable results.
- after_care 5y agoIt’s assuming the average pool goer consumes an average amount of artificial sweetener. Even further it’s making assumptions about the average person that pees in a pool.
- Johnny555 5y agoIf you're only interested in measuring increase over time, then the only assumption you need to make is that average consumption of Ace-K remains constant over time. And, I suppose that people that consume Ace-K pee in pools at the same rate as other people. As someone who doesn't pee in pools (but has peed in the ocean), I don't know how valid that is.
- tdeck 5y agoIn case you're from the U.S. and wondering why you've never heard of this particular sweetener, I looked it up. It appears to be one of the ingredients in Equal, along with aspartame.