Science of the Total Environment

A research team including Osaka University analyzed wastewater surveillance methods for accurately tracking COVID-19 infection trends. Using wastewater data from Sapporo dating from April 2021–September 2023, they explored survey conditions obtaining strong correlation between viral concentration in wastewater and infection incidence. The study identified key methods, including high-sensitivity analysis and geometric mean data processing, as essential for effective regional surveillance, providing critical insights for future public health monitoring.

Microplastics already at the bottom of Beppu Bay by 1960!

A simple and economical method of detecting SARS-CoV-2 viral loads in wastewater with high sensitivity has been developed, expanding the use of wastewater-based epidemiology for tracking the virus in populations.

Even a small temperature drop in the tropical climate of Singapore increases the risk of heart attack among people aged 65 and above, say researchers from Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore’s National Environment Agency and collaborators.

Exposure to persistent organic pollutants in pet cats lowers blood thyroid hormone levels and causes chronic oxidative stress.

Researchers from the Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, find that the risk of human–elephant conflict in Thailand is likely to shift with climate change

• Effects of gestational bisphenol A exposure were compared between rat dams and their offspring. • Bisphenol A affected the dams' circadian rhythm, immune response, and insulin resistance. • Nevertheless, at the multi-omics levels (transcriptome and lipidome), the impact on the dams was less than on their offspring. • Multi-variates analysis successfully differentiated the multi-omics effects between dams and their offspring.

A joint research team at the Division of Biotechnology, DGIST, confirmed that microplastics(MPs) ingested orally accumulate in the brain and act as neurotoxic substances.

Climate warming will alter marine community compositions as species are expected to shift poleward, significantly impacting the Arctic marine ecosystem.

A group of scientists have detected genetic material from SARS-CoV-2 in untreated wastewater samples collected in April 2020 from two wastewater treatment plants in Louisiana, USA.

A group of researchers have demonstrated that, from seven methods commonly used to test for viruses in untreated wastewater, an adsorption-extraction technique can most efficiently detect SARS-CoV-2. This gives us another tool to detect the presence and spread of the COVID-19 pandemic

Wastewater could be used as a surveillance tool to monitor the invasion, spread and eradication of COVID-19 in communities.