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Exposure to environmental pollutants: A mini-review on the application of wastewater-based epidemiology approach

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Abstract

Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) is considered an innovative and promising tool for estimating community exposure to a wide range of chemical and biological compounds by analyzing wastewater. Despite scholars' interest in WBE studies, there are uncertainties and limitations associated with this approach. This current review focuses on the feasibility of the WBE approach in assessing environmental pollutants, including pesticides, heavy metals, phthalates, bisphenols, and personal care products (PCPs). Limitations and challenges of WBE studies are initially discussed, and then future perspectives, gaps, and recommendations are presented in this review. One of the key limitations of this approach is the selection and identification of appropriate biomarkers in studies. Selecting biomarkers considering the basic requirements of a human exposure biomarker is the most important criterion for validating this new approach. Assessing the stability of biomarkers in wastewater is crucial for reliable comparisons of substance consumption in the population. However, directly analyzing wastewater does not provide a clear picture of biomarker stability. This uncertainty affects the reliability of temporal and spatial comparisons. Various uncertainties also arise from different steps involved in WBE. These uncertainties include sewage sampling, exogenous sources, analytical measurements, back-calculation, and estimation of the population under investigation. Further research is necessary to ensure that measured pollutant levels accurately reflect human excretion. Utilizing data from WBE can support healthcare policy in assessing exposure to environmental pollutants in the general population. Moreover, WBE seems to be a valuable tool for biomarkers that indicate healthy conditions, lifestyle, disease identification, and exposure to pollutants. Although this approach has the potential to serve as a biomonitoring tool in large communities, it is necessary to monitor more metabolites from wastewater to enhance future studies.

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Funding

No funding was received for conducting this study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Mina Aghaei & Mohammad Hadi Dehghani

  2. Center for Water Quality Research (CWQR), Institute for Environmental Research (IER), Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Mina Aghaei

  3. Environmental Health Research Center, Lorestan University of Medical Sciences, Khorramabad, Iran

    Nahid  Khoshnamvand

  4. Research Center for Environmental Determinants of Health (RCEDH), Health Institute, Kermanshah University of Medical Science, Kermanshah, Iran

    Hosna Janjani

  5. Center for Solid Waste Research (CSWR), Institute for Environmental Research, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Mohammad Hadi Dehghani

  6. Petroleum and Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Brunei, Bandar Seri Begawan, BE1410, Brunei Darussalam

    Rama Rao Karri

Authors
  1. Mina Aghaei
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  2. Nahid  Khoshnamvand
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  3. Hosna Janjani
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  4. Mohammad Hadi Dehghani
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  5. Rama Rao Karri
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Contributions

M.A: Conceptualization, searching, drafting the manuscript, N.K. H. J.: searching, drafting the manuscript, M.H.D. R.R.K.: Conceptualization and design of study, Supervision, review & editing.

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Correspondence to Mohammad Hadi Dehghani.

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Highlights

• Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) has been developed as an innovative approach to estimate exposure to environmental pollutants.

• WBE approach overcomes some limitations of human biomonitoring (HBM), i.e., high cost, sampling bias, ethical issues, etc.

• The most important challenges are the biomarker detectability and stability in wastewater.

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Aghaei, M.,  Khoshnamvand, N., Janjani, H. et al. Exposure to environmental pollutants: A mini-review on the application of wastewater-based epidemiology approach. J Environ Health Sci Engineer (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40201-024-00895-0

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