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Posted on 05/09/2025 2:04:51 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Researchers have found a new way to test for water contamination. And it's thanks to our poop.
In late 2024, researchers from Chungnam National University and Gyeongsang National University published their findings on a new technique for detecting fecal contamination in water using human viral DNA, known as microbial source tracking (MST), in the journal Water Research.
And while this may make you let out a little "ew" under your breath, it's critical to know that fecal contamination is, in fact, a significant issue both globally and here in the United States. The World Health Organization explained, "In 2022, globally, at least 1.7 billion people use a drinking water source contaminated with feces. Microbial contamination of drinking-water as a result of contamination with faeces poses the greatest risk to drinking-water safety."
And as noted in a 2020 study published in the journal Current Environmental Health Reports, "Aging sewer infrastructure in the USA and elsewhere will require rapid methods to assess fecal contamination of water. The number of extreme weather events, including flooding events, is forecasted to increase with climate change and has been associated with contamination of water resources."
Your Cutting Board May Have 200 Times More Fecal Bacteria Than a Toilet Seat Runoff contamination can transfer harmful bacteria to humans, such as E. coli, leading to various health concerns. Therefore, recognizing fecal contamination in the water supply is crucial for your health. Thankfully, scientists are on the case.
As Food Safety explained, conventional testing involved sampling water by adding droplets to a microbial culture (known as fecal indicator bacteria or FIB). Although this method is both cheap and easy, it can only detect fecal matter at higher contamination levels.
However, a viral-DNA method employs microbial source tracking (MST), which can detect biomarkers of fecal matter at much lower levels. While the MST method itself isn’t new — it’s been around for roughly two decades — the real breakthrough is these researchers' deployment of human-specific crAss-like phage DNA markers, which is a really fancy way of saying they can now spot smaller traces of fecal matter and identify if it's human waste far more precisely than before. It can even detect where the fecal matter originated — i.e., if it's human or animal — or identify multiple sources at once.
A 2024 study published in the journal Science of the Total Environment examined this updated MST method by "investigating the abundance, sources, and potential causes of fecal contamination" across three marine and seven freshwater stations in Vaughn Bay, Washington. This research included tests conducted in a shellfish growing district during both "base- and storm-flow events."
This research team evaluated the old-school FIB method, along with optical brightener assessment (a fluorescent compound that indicates fecal contamination), and the newer MST method, the last of which "targeted a broad range of hosts including, such as humans, birds, cows, horses, ruminants, dogs, and pigs, with sequencing-based MST in identifying fecal contamination sources."
After testing the waters, they identified a few critical points. First, birds and humans are the primary culprits of contamination; second, stormwater runoff exacerbates contamination significantly; and third, the sequencing-based MST provides the most effective testing approach. The researchers noted that this method is more cost-effective per sample and yields much more detailed information, which is why they now recommend its use to officials.
But here's a little other fun fact for you: Fecal contamination doesn't just happen in our waterways. As the Washington Post explained in 2023, there's fecal contamination on essentially everything.
The paper pointed to a 2012 study that tested 85 grocery carts and found that 72% of them tested positive for fecal bacteria. Another 2017 study looked at "microbial contamination" in home kitchens, including fecal coliforms. It found fecal coliforms in 44% of homes, "most often in samples from kitchen sinks, sponges, and dishcloths," and E. coli in 15% of homes, "mostly in samples from kitchen sinks." So, go ahead and wash your hands right now. And be grateful for scientists who help us keep our waterways safe.
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And just how did you think we get charged up with our gut bacteria? And just what did anybody think “probiotics” is actually composed of?
We could not digest much of the “food” we consume without the aid of these fecal bacteria. They break down various materials into sugars, fatty acids, and amino acids, and reform them into substances that may be utilized at a cellular level within the body.
That's the penalty for letting DemoRats live in America.
Here’s what we’re doing about it. Big Berkey water filter.
I have that. It’s great.
The human body can handle it. The problem is we try to purify everything to the point that our immune systems never get to fully develop.
Not to worry. There are very few calories in the few particles of fecal matter. Worry more about about eating pasta and bread made with refined flour. Those will cause weight gain, diabetes and heart disease. Stomach acid is very strong, it kills any bacteria coming in. If you stick your finger in the stomach fluids, you will have a serious burn.
They are silent about the fact that fish poop and have sex in that water.
What REALLY matters, is it in our beer?
When I lived in ROC, drinking tap water was at your own peril. Outside of the cities, sewage would literally flow down the road gutters.
In the middle ages beer was all they could drink because all the water was contaminated, cows, goats, pigs, etc. The heating and the alcohol got rid of the bugs.
Not unless someone’s taking a dump in my well. But since it’s a few hundred feet deep I think I’ll sleep tonight.
From back in 2000-
Pineville (Louisiana) Horror
Sewage water flowed in their faucets
Pipeline foul-up angers Louisianans, costs public official his job
May 29, 2000
PINEVILLE, Louisiana (CNN) — The tap water at Zelma McCoy’s house was the color of mud. Neighbor Christy Chua was bothered by the stench. “Whenever we’d take a shower it really smelled,” she told CNN.
They are among 350 residents of the Walden Point subdivision in Pineville, Louisiana, who unknowingly drank and bathed in water contaminated by sewage for almost three months because city workers mistakenly connected a sewer line to an underground water pipe.
The problem, discovered earlier this month, has since been fixed, says Mayor Clarence Fields.
‘I have been drinking sewage water’
City officials say health risks were minimal because enough chlorine is put in the water supply to kill most bacteria. But residents of this central Louisiana city, who were temporarily ordered to boil their tap water, are disgusted and angry.
“I get physically ill when I think that I have been bathing, drinking and washing my clothes and dishes in sewage water,” Tammy Campbell said.
The filters on Campbell’s washing machine, dishwasher and refrigerator ice-maker became clogged with a white stringy substance, which she later learned was used toilet paper.
The water heaters of other residents filled up with what they originally thought was dirt — but turned out to be excrement.
Roger that. Nice, slim Travel Berkey sits on our counter right next to the sink. And no fecal matter.
Not in my well water. It’s 198 feet deep with a 100-foot-thick layer of clay above the water table
If you have seen me eat, you would know I don’t have that problem. I gross out my co-workers. If I drop food on the ground, I’ll pick it up and eat it.
Euuuuwww, they will say. You’ll die doing that...
Yet, I am 63 and going...
I thought this was an article about India and that area of the world.
Yup.
Gravity drip filters are the way to go.
Had a Berky, used up the filters.
Got some good non-berkey filters and rebuilt the berkey.
It is stainless so I got a new valve and filters (only 2) and it is good to go.
28 years and going...
.
We have an enormous number of homeless people living along the river near here. They found e coli in the water. They said it wasn’t from humans it was from geese and fish and other animals but definitely not the homeless people who live along the banks of the river. I don’t believe anything any more.
Purifying is actually good. Civilization really got going once we figured out how to get poop away from our houses. In India everyone poops in the Ganges. Here we have these things called toilets that magically take poop away. The reason poop stinks is because it is not good to eat. In the dark ages people just dumped their poop out of the window onto the street and they only lived into their 30’s. Now we flush our poop away and live 3 times longer. Coincidence?
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