We learned the power of wastewater testing during the COVID-19 epidemic (and the years that followed) when scientists were able to tell us where outbreaks were happening based on the wastewater from different municipalities. But that’s not all it can be used to monitor. Mark Servos, Biology professor and one of the lead scientists in Ontario for monitoring wastewater COVID levels, has been granted a $900,000 NSERC Alliance Advantage grant to expand on the approach and apply it to monitoring high-risk substances (drugs of abuse) in our wastewater.
“We will be working with municipalities and governments across Canada to take what we learned during COVID-19 and apply it to another crisis in our country,” says Servos. “Through this grant, we will support Public Health by improving our approach specifically for monitoring high-risk substances in our wastewater. Our goal is to help address this current crisis by providing a reliable alternative way to track trends, so our public health system has an alternative tool to support their Harm Reduction programs.”
Congratulations to Dr. Servos and his team!