California county starts monitoring wastewater for illicit drugs
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[April 11, 2023]
By Nathan Frandino
SAN RAFAEL, California (Reuters) - As the COVID-19 pandemic wanes, a
California county is using the same wastewater monitoring program it
used to track the coronavirus to go after another deadly public health
crisis: opioids.
Marin County, north of San Francisco, began a pilot program in February
to collect wastewater samples from its sanitation agency and test them
for the presence of substances like fentanyl, methamphetamines, cocaine,
and nicotine.
Local authorities hope the data could be beneficial in assisting
prevention and intervention efforts. For example, if there is an
abundance of opioids present in the samples, they could boost the
distribution of Narcan, which rapidly reverses the effects of the
illegal drug, especially when given within minutes of the first signs of
an overdose.
"The problem of overdose is a public health crisis. We're losing one
resident every five days in Marin County," said Dr. Matt Willis, Marin
County's public health officer. "And so we really think it's important
for us to develop the same kind of surveillance methods, the same kind
of intelligence we had applied to the COVID-19 pandemic, to this new
crisis of overdoses."
Marin County, like many other places in the U.S., is grappling with a
drug epidemic. Overdose deaths rose from 30 in 2018 to 65 in 2021,
according to the county's department of health and human services.
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The Central Marin Sanitation Agency
facility, where wastewater samples are collected for testing, is
seen in San Rafael, California, U.S. March 29, 2023. REUTERS/Nathan
Frandino
The county used the same method and
partners to monitor for evidence of the spread of the coronavirus,
so the infrastructure for the pilot program is largely in place.
Twice a week, workers with the Central Marin Sanitation Agency
collect a 50-milliliter sample of wastewater from the roughly 8
million gallons that flow into its San Rafael facility daily. That
wastewater comes from residential, commercial, and industrial
sources like kitchen and bathroom sinks, toilets, and showers.
The sample is then shipped to Biobot Analytics, based in Cambridge,
Massachusetts. Biobot researchers then analyze the sample for the
presence of drugs.
Biobot declined to say how many U.S. counties are specifically
testing for substances but said they test samples from more than 700
locations across more than 50 states, territories, and provinces.
The locations include sites that are testing for either infectious
diseases, high-risk substances, or both.
(Reporting by Nathan Frandino in San Rafael, Additional reporting by
Brian Snyder in Cambridge, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)
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