University of California at Merced’s (UCM) Nicotine and Cannabis Policy Center has embarked on an innovative partnership with university researchers who can track an entire community’s health and habits with samples of human sewage. The project, which plans to have a pilot running by this summer, aims to determine trends and levels of nicotine use in San Joaquin Valley communities through chemicals in wastewater.
The project will start by collecting wastewater from two cities in Merced and Stanislaus counties and from the UCM campus. Sewage samples will be analyzed for nicotine metabolites over a span of several months, allowing researchers to observe trends and patterns of use.
“You can see if it’s increasing or decreasing at certain times of the year,” said UCM environmental engineer Professor Colleen Naughton. “You also can see if your interventions are working, based on whether concentrations rise or fall.”
Traditional methods of collecting data about nicotine use, such as surveys and phone calls, often suffer from low response rates and difficulties in connecting with hard-to-reach populations. The data collected with this study will allow local public health agencies, community organizations, and tobacco-control researchers to make more informed decisions.
“We continue to have significant gaps in reliable measurements of how many people smoke or use other tobacco products in the San Joaquin Valley. This could help fill those gaps,” Public health Professor Arturo Durazo said. “From there, perhaps the research could extend to other substances such as cannabis, alcohol or fentanyl.”
