UK Survey Finds Broad Support for Wastewater Health Monitoring

Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) uses sewage to monitor pathogens and other biomarkers, but its expanding applications raise questions about public consent, privacy and data use. Researchers surveyed 1,157 UK adults in June 2022 through YouGov, using quotas for age, gender and region and weighting responses to UK population demographics. Participants rated awareness, support and comfort across different monitoring purposes, sampling locations and data users.

Only 37% knew SARS-CoV-2 could be detected in faeces, while 92% supported monitoring for infectious diseases and toxins. Support was also high for monitoring mental wellbeing (83%) and smoking habits (82%). Respondents were more comfortable with surveillance of larger populations and near-source locations, including hospitals and schools; comfort with household-level monitoring ranged from 47% to 56%. Trust was highest in public health and research institutions and lower in private businesses and police.

The findings indicate broad public support, alongside concerns that vary with monitoring scale, location and data user. The authors highlight transparent communication and citizen engagement as important to ethical implementation. The survey captures views at one point in time and measures reported perceptions, not acceptance or effects of specific operational WBE programmes.