Leaders | From lavatory to laboratory

How spying on sewage could save lives

Wastewater surveillance is a cheap tool to spot health problems, but it is open to abuse

FILE - Firefighters from the Marins-Pompiers of Marseille extract samples of sewage water at a retirement home in Marseille, southern France, Thursday Jan. 14, 2021, to trace concentrations of COVID-19 and the highly contagious variant that has been discovered in Britain. As coronavirus infections rise in some parts of the world, experts are watching for a potential new COVID-19 surge in the U.S. — and wondering how long it will take to detect. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)

If, as the saying goes, you are what you eat, then it stands to reason you also excrete what you are. Vladimir Putin apparently appreciates this fact. When he relieves himself on trips abroad, it is reported that a modern-day “groom of the stool” discreetly retrieves the dictator’s waste for subsequent disposal, lest it fall into the hands of hostile intelligence agencies, whose analysis might reveal compromising signs of ill-health.

This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “Spying on sewage could save lives”

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