Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Tech, USA.
Citizen Scientist, Flint MI, USA.
Water Res. 2021 Aug 1;201:117304. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2021.117304. Epub 2021 May 27.
Rising incidence of waterborne diseases including Legionellosis linked to low chlorine residuals in buildings and the availability of inexpensive testing options, create an opportunity for citizen science chorine monitoring to complement sampling done by water utilities. University researchers and Flint residents coordinated a citizen science chlorine surveillance campaign in Flint, Michigan in 2015-19, that helped expose the nature of two deadly Legionnaires Disease outbreaks in 2014-2015 during the Flint Water Crisis and progress of system recovery during the Federal emergency. Results obtained with an inexpensive color wheel were in agreement with a digital colorimeter (R =0.99; p = 2.81 × 10) at 15 sites geographically distributed across Flint. Blinded tests revealed good agreement between official (n = 2051) and citizen (n = 654) data in terms of determining whether regulatory guidelines for chlorine were met, but a discovery that the citizen data were statistically lower than the city's (p<0.00001) especially in warm summer months led to recommendations for increased flushing of service lines before measurements. This work suggests that expanded citizen surveillance of chlorine, site specific flushing advice, and guidance on decisions about water heater set point could help consumers reduce Legionella risks in their homes. Citizen science initiatives for chlorine monitoring offer a unique opportunity for mutually beneficial collaborations between consumers and utilities to reduce the main source of waterborne disease in developed countries.
包括军团病在内的水传播疾病的发病率上升，与建筑物中氯残留量低以及廉价检测选项的可用性有关，这为公民科学氯监测提供了机会，可以补充水公用事业部门的采样。2015-2019 年，密歇根州弗林特的大学研究人员和居民协调了一项公民科学氯监测活动，该活动帮助揭示了 2014-2015 年弗林特水危机期间两次致命军团病爆发的性质以及联邦紧急状态期间系统恢复的进展。在弗林特市的 15 个地理位置分布的地点，使用廉价的色轮获得的结果与数字比色计（R=0.99；p=2.81×10）一致。在确定是否符合氯的监管指南方面，盲测结果表明官方（n=2051）和公民（n=654）数据之间存在良好的一致性，但公民数据统计上低于该市的数据（p<0.00001），特别是在温暖的夏季月份，这一发现促使人们建议在测量前增加服务线冲洗。这项工作表明，扩大对氯的公民监测、针对特定地点的冲洗建议以及关于热水器设定点的决策指南，可以帮助消费者降低家中的军团菌风险。氯监测的公民科学倡议为消费者和公用事业公司之间互利合作提供了独特的机会，以减少发达国家水传播疾病的主要来源。
