Environmental Sciences Division, National Exposure Research Laboratory, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 944 East Harmon Avenue, Las Vegas, NV 89119, USA.
Sci Total Environ. 2012 Jan 1;414:6-21. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2011.11.015. Epub 2011 Dec 1.
A new approach is conceptualized for measuring small-area human populations by using biomarkers in sewage. The basis for the concept (SCIM: Sewage Chemical-Information Mining) is supported by a comprehensive examination and synthesis of data published across several disciplines, including medicine, microbiology, clinical chemistry, and environmental science. Accurate measures of human populations are fundamental to numerous disciplines, including economics, marketing, politics, sociology, public health and safety (e.g., disease management; assessment of natural hazards; disaster prevention and response), quality of life, and the environment. Knowing the size, distribution, and flow of a small-area (local) population facilitates understanding the numerous and complex linkages and interactions between humans and the environment. Examples include material-flow (substance-flow) analysis, determining the magnitude of per capita contribution of pollutant loadings to watersheds, or forecasting future impacts of local populations on the environment or a population's demands on resources. While no definitive approach exists for measuring small-area populations, census-taking is a long-established convention. No approach exists, however, for gauging small-area populations in real-time, as none is able to capture population dynamics, which involve transient changes (e.g., daily influx and efflux) and lasting changes (e.g., births, deaths, change in residence). Accurate measurement of small-area populations in real time has never been possible but is essential for facilitating the design of more sustainable communities. Real-time measurement would provide communities the capability of testing what-if scenarios in design and policy decisions. After evaluation of a range of biomarkers (including the nitrogenous waste product creatinine, which has been long used in clinical chemistry as a parameter to normalize the concentrations of other urinary excretion products to account for urine dilution), the biomarker with the most potential for the SCIM concept for real-time measurement of population was determined to be coprostanol - the major sterol produced by microbial reduction of cholesterol in the colon.
提出了一种利用污水中的生物标志物来测量小区域人群的新方法。该概念（SCIM：污水化学信息挖掘）的基础是对包括医学、微生物学、临床化学和环境科学在内的多个学科发表的数据进行全面检查和综合。对人口进行准确的测量是许多学科的基础，包括经济学、市场营销、政治学、社会学、公共卫生和安全（例如疾病管理；自然灾害评估；灾害预防和应对）、生活质量和环境。了解小区域（本地）人口的规模、分布和流动情况有助于理解人类与环境之间众多复杂的联系和相互作用。例如，物质流动（物质流）分析，确定污染物负荷对流域人均贡献的大小，或预测当地人口对环境或人口对资源的未来影响。虽然没有用于测量小区域人口的明确方法，但人口普查是一种由来已久的传统。然而，目前还没有实时衡量小区域人口的方法，因为没有任何方法能够捕捉到人口动态，而人口动态涉及到瞬态变化（例如，每日流入和流出）和持久变化（例如，出生、死亡、居住地变化）。实时准确测量小区域人口从未成为可能，但对于促进更可持续社区的设计至关重要。实时测量将使社区能够在设计和政策决策中测试假设情景。在评估了一系列生物标志物（包括氮废物肌酐，它在临床化学中长期以来一直被用作参数，以将其他尿液排泄产物的浓度归一化为尿液稀释）之后，确定最有可能用于 SCIM 概念的生物标志物是粪甾醇 - 微生物还原胆固醇在结肠中产生的主要固醇。
