| Description | USING SEWERS TO TELL US ABOUT DRUG USE with Dr. Dan Burgard, UW Tacoma Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) is only a decade old technique but has been realized as a powerful complementary tool to traditional epidemiological metrics in Europe, Australia, and Asia, and is growing in North America. This talk will explore the WBE approach, provide results from some wastewater case studies in the U.S., and suggest how wastewater may be useful for addressing current and future challenges related to public health. Dan Burgard is a professor of chemistry at the University of Puget Sound and an affiliate associate professor at UW Tacoma in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences. At UPS, Dan teaches Analytical Chemistry, Instrumental Analysis, Environmental Analytical Chemistry and The Art and Science of Color. His research is environmentally analytical in nature, measuring gaseous emissions from mobile sources with remote sensing in the Puget Sound region as well as nationally and internationally. However, recently he has changed focus to determine trace levels of drug metabolites in urban wastewater. This field, coined “wastewater-based epidemiology,” determines drug use trends in communities. |
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