Grant: Project Grant

We have developed and tested methods to measure opioid drugs and sexually transmitted and blood borne infections (STBBIs) in municipal wastewater. We plan to expand these methods, and develop a novel rapid test method for some of our targets during the first year of this project. We will work with our Regional Health Department and Works Department in the second year to measure the prevalence of opioid drugs and STBBIs in municipal wastewater using our existing methods, and also incorporating any improvements we achieve during method expansion. Using a full years' worth of data from different sized neighborhoods with a variety of deomgraphics, we will model our data and compare it to what is known from clinical records for each neighborhood. In the final year, we will work with community health partners, and use the models and insights gained from the 12 month study to determine how wastewater measurements could be used to provide greater insight into the prevalence of opioid use and STBBIs, and also develop ideas for intervention and targeted education to reduce harm from opioids and STBBIs, with the goal to improve public health outcomes.