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Over a billion gallons of wastewater pass through New York City’s wastewater treatment plants every day. Since the spring, the city has been one of many places across the country to use this flow of excrement to track the spread of COVID-19.
When people get infected with the coronavirus, part of the virus exits their bodies through their feces. It starts showing up reliably in their waste before they even start showing symptoms. This virus-laden excrement ends up in wastewater, along with whatever we throw down the drain. Research shows that increases in virus levels in wastewater for a particular area occur about a week before the number of people testing positive peaks.
There are 14 sewage treatment plants in New York City, and in each of them facility workers routinely siphon flasks of incoming sewage and send them to a Brooklyn lab to be tested for traces. genetic material of the coronavirus. There are usually at least a few fragments of the virus in each sample – a sign that people in town are sick. What they’re really looking at, however, is the amount virus. If the concentrations of a particular factory increase, it is a signal that the area which sends the waste to the factory could face an epidemic.
In the last Edge Science video, we followed to see the process in action – and got a first-hand look at why you definitely shouldn’t flush baby wipes down the toilet.
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