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Human wastewater tracking in tropical Hawaiian island streams using qualitative and quantitative assessments of combined fecal indicating bacteria and sucralose, an organic micropollutant of emerging concern
Prevalence of cesspools on tropical islands suggests that high concentrations of enteric bacteria in streams and coastal waters are an indicator of groundwater contamination by human wastewater. But enterococci bacteria may also be from homeothermic animals common to these watersheds or bacteria liv...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Springer International Publishing
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10354164/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37464185 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10661-023-11545-7 |
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author | Berg, Carl J. Alderete, John P. Alderete, Ethan A. |
author_facet | Berg, Carl J. Alderete, John P. Alderete, Ethan A. |
author_sort | Berg, Carl J. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Prevalence of cesspools on tropical islands suggests that high concentrations of enteric bacteria in streams and coastal waters are an indicator of groundwater contamination by human wastewater. But enterococci bacteria may also be from homeothermic animals common to these watersheds or bacteria living in sediments. Sucralose, a manufactured chemical not destroyed in passage through the human gut, cesspools, septic systems, or wastewater treatment facilities, was used to test for the presence of human wastewater in streams on the island of Kauai, Hawaii. Effluent from six municipal wastewater treatment plants showed an average concentration of 39,167 ng/L of sucralose, roughly back-calculated to 9 ng/L per person, enough to present itself in cesspool effluent contaminated waters. Of 24 streams tested, 79% were positive for sucralose at least once in four sets of sampling. All streams tested positive for enterococci bacteria above established standards. Serial testing of the pair of indicators in the same location over time and applying the Multiplication Rule to the independent samples provide a probabilistic certainty level that the water is chronically polluted by human waste. When repeatedly paired with tests for enterococci, sucralose testing is a cost-effective means for assessing human health risk and for developing proper waste management programs that has been underutilized in under-developed tropical and island settings. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-10354164 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | Springer International Publishing |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-103541642023-07-20 Human wastewater tracking in tropical Hawaiian island streams using qualitative and quantitative assessments of combined fecal indicating bacteria and sucralose, an organic micropollutant of emerging concern Berg, Carl J. Alderete, John P. Alderete, Ethan A. Environ Monit Assess Research Prevalence of cesspools on tropical islands suggests that high concentrations of enteric bacteria in streams and coastal waters are an indicator of groundwater contamination by human wastewater. But enterococci bacteria may also be from homeothermic animals common to these watersheds or bacteria living in sediments. Sucralose, a manufactured chemical not destroyed in passage through the human gut, cesspools, septic systems, or wastewater treatment facilities, was used to test for the presence of human wastewater in streams on the island of Kauai, Hawaii. Effluent from six municipal wastewater treatment plants showed an average concentration of 39,167 ng/L of sucralose, roughly back-calculated to 9 ng/L per person, enough to present itself in cesspool effluent contaminated waters. Of 24 streams tested, 79% were positive for sucralose at least once in four sets of sampling. All streams tested positive for enterococci bacteria above established standards. Serial testing of the pair of indicators in the same location over time and applying the Multiplication Rule to the independent samples provide a probabilistic certainty level that the water is chronically polluted by human waste. When repeatedly paired with tests for enterococci, sucralose testing is a cost-effective means for assessing human health risk and for developing proper waste management programs that has been underutilized in under-developed tropical and island settings. Springer International Publishing 2023-07-19 2023 /pmc/articles/PMC10354164/ /pubmed/37464185 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10661-023-11545-7 Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Research Berg, Carl J. Alderete, John P. Alderete, Ethan A. Human wastewater tracking in tropical Hawaiian island streams using qualitative and quantitative assessments of combined fecal indicating bacteria and sucralose, an organic micropollutant of emerging concern |
title | Human wastewater tracking in tropical Hawaiian island streams using qualitative and quantitative assessments of combined fecal indicating bacteria and sucralose, an organic micropollutant of emerging concern |
title_full | Human wastewater tracking in tropical Hawaiian island streams using qualitative and quantitative assessments of combined fecal indicating bacteria and sucralose, an organic micropollutant of emerging concern |
title_fullStr | Human wastewater tracking in tropical Hawaiian island streams using qualitative and quantitative assessments of combined fecal indicating bacteria and sucralose, an organic micropollutant of emerging concern |
title_full_unstemmed | Human wastewater tracking in tropical Hawaiian island streams using qualitative and quantitative assessments of combined fecal indicating bacteria and sucralose, an organic micropollutant of emerging concern |
title_short | Human wastewater tracking in tropical Hawaiian island streams using qualitative and quantitative assessments of combined fecal indicating bacteria and sucralose, an organic micropollutant of emerging concern |
title_sort | human wastewater tracking in tropical hawaiian island streams using qualitative and quantitative assessments of combined fecal indicating bacteria and sucralose, an organic micropollutant of emerging concern |
topic | Research |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10354164/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37464185 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10661-023-11545-7 |
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