{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,21]],"date-time":"2026-04-21T06:56:56Z","timestamp":1776754616141,"version":"3.51.2"},"reference-count":22,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,30]],"date-time":"2026-01-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1769731200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000865","name":"Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["INV-037558"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["INV-037558"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000865","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100006492","name":"Division of Intramural Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["U24AI183840"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["U24AI183840"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100006492","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000865","name":"Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["INV-038071"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["INV-038071"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000865","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.ploswater.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLOS Water"],"abstract":"<jats:p>\n                    Wastewater surveillance (WWS) has a long history in infectious disease management, from the detection of\n                    <jats:italic>Salmonella<\/jats:italic>\n                    <jats:italic>Paratyphi B<\/jats:italic>\n                    in sewers by Moore in 1948, to its role in global poliovirus eradication and more recently the deployment of WWS to track SARS-CoV-2. Whilst current interest has focused on pathogen sequencing to monitor outbreaks, WWS encompasses a much broader molecular landscape that includes a wide array of chemical compounds, proteins and DNA from human, animal, plant and microbial organisms. This diversity creates novel opportunities for public health applications, environmental monitoring, biodiversity studies, forensic science and even commercial innovation. The communities from which wastewater is sourced should be the primary beneficiaries of surveillance efforts, but WWS also requires robust governance mechanisms and ethical oversight to prevent harm to communities, ensure equitable practices, fulfil legal obligations and ensure appropriate use of potentially sensitive or commercially valuable findings. End-users of WWS resources must navigate these complexities to ensure ethical and legal compliance and responsible use of WWS samples and data. To assist with this process, we developed the WWS Ethics Adviser, an online interactive tool designed to alert users to context-specific ethical, legal, and governance considerations in WWS activities. The app aims to synthesise the principles of guidelines, treaties and other complex frameworks and resources into concise and actionable information for end users. The content is created within a two-dimensional matrix that categorises molecular entities and their origin against corresponding ethical, legal and governance elements. The tool offers tailored advice for WWS practitioners, oversight committees and responsible parties, in order to support equitable, ethical and legal WWS practices across diverse settings and use cases, and can be found at:\n                    <jats:ext-link xmlns:xlink=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1999\/xlink\" ext-link-type=\"uri\" xlink:href=\"https:\/\/wastewater-surveillance-ethics.streamlit.app\/\" xlink:type=\"simple\">https:\/\/wastewater-surveillance-ethics.streamlit.app\/<\/jats:ext-link>\n                    .\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pwat.0000422","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,30]],"date-time":"2026-01-30T18:22:08Z","timestamp":1769797328000},"page":"e0000422","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pwat.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Accessible ethics and legal advice for wastewater surveillance: The WWS ethics adviser app"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"5","author":[{"given":"Tsaone","family":"Tamuhla","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3814-8786","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Mercury","family":"Shitindo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Michelle","family":"Nichols","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Vincent Junxiong","family":"Pang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Elyssa Jiawen","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5083-2735","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Nicki","family":"Tiffin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"340","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,30]]},"reference":[{"issue":"13","key":"pwat.0000422.ref001","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1128\/AEM.00060-20","article-title":"Reviving the \u201cMoore Swab\u201d: a Classic Environmental Surveillance Tool Involving Filtration of Flowing Surface Water and Sewage Water To Recover Typhoidal Salmonella Bacteria","volume":"86","author":"MJ Sikorski","year":"2020","journal-title":"Appl Environ Microbiol"},{"issue":"6","key":"pwat.0000422.ref002","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"765","DOI":"10.1084\/jem.71.6.765","article-title":"II. Poliomyelitic virus in urban sewage","volume":"71","author":"JR Paul","year":"1940","journal-title":"J Exp Med"},{"key":"pwat.0000422.ref003","article-title":"Environmental surveillance for polioviruses in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative","author":"H Asghar","year":"2014","journal-title":"J Infect Dis"},{"key":"pwat.0000422.ref004","author":"World Health Organisation","year":"2023"},{"issue":"36","key":"pwat.0000422.ref005","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1242","DOI":"10.15585\/mmwr.mm7036a2","article-title":"Using Wastewater Surveillance Data to Support the COVID-19 Response - United States, 2020-2021","volume":"70","author":"AE Kirby","year":"2021","journal-title":"MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep"},{"issue":"12","key":"pwat.0000422.ref006","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1814","DOI":"10.1038\/s41587-022-01387-y","article-title":"Viral variant-resolved wastewater surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 at national scale","volume":"40","author":"F Amman","year":"2022","journal-title":"Nat Biotechnol"},{"issue":"6627","key":"pwat.0000422.ref007","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"26","DOI":"10.1126\/science.ade2503","article-title":"Wastewater surveillance for public health","volume":"379","author":"JI Levy","year":"2023","journal-title":"Science"},{"issue":"8008","key":"pwat.0000422.ref008","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"492","DOI":"10.1038\/d41586-024-01092-7","article-title":"What toilets can reveal about COVID, cancer and other health threats","volume":"628","author":"B Ladyzhets","year":"2024","journal-title":"Nature"},{"issue":"57","key":"pwat.0000422.ref009","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"30863","DOI":"10.1007\/s11356-025-36425-0","article-title":"Comprehensive method to detect nitazene analogues and xylazine in wastewater","volume":"32","author":"EL Keller","year":"2025","journal-title":"Environ Sci Pollut Res Int"},{"key":"pwat.0000422.ref010","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"105689","DOI":"10.1016\/j.envint.2020.105689","article-title":"Future perspectives of wastewater-based epidemiology: Monitoring infectious disease spread and resistance to the community level","volume":"139","author":"N Sims","year":"2020","journal-title":"Environ Int"},{"issue":"8","key":"pwat.0000422.ref011","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1027","DOI":"10.1289\/ehp.11022","article-title":"Estimating community drug abuse by wastewater analysis","volume":"116","author":"E Zuccato","year":"2008","journal-title":"Environ Health Perspect"},{"key":"pwat.0000422.ref012","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"155961","DOI":"10.1016\/j.scitotenv.2022.155961","article-title":"Assessing population-level stress through glucocorticoid hormone monitoring in wastewater","volume":"838","author":"EM Driver","year":"2022","journal-title":"Sci Total 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Ram","year":"2023","journal-title":"Science"},{"issue":"13","key":"pwat.0000422.ref016","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"8484","DOI":"10.1021\/acs.est.1c00308","article-title":"Ethics Guidance for Environmental Scientists Engaged in Surveillance of Wastewater for SARS-CoV-2","volume":"55","author":"SE Hrudey","year":"2021","journal-title":"Environ Sci Technol"},{"issue":"11","key":"pwat.0000422.ref017","first-page":"2431","article-title":"Wastewater research and surveillance: an ethical exploration","volume":"8","author":"N Doorn","year":"2022","journal-title":"Environ Sci (Camb)"},{"key":"pwat.0000422.ref018","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"121095","DOI":"10.1016\/j.watres.2023.121095","article-title":"Making waves: The benefits and challenges of responsibly implementing wastewater-based surveillance for rural communities","volume":"250","author":"A Cohen","year":"2024","journal-title":"Water Res"},{"key":"pwat.0000422.ref019","volume-title":"The Convention on Biological Diversity","year":"2016"},{"key":"pwat.0000422.ref020","author":"World Health Organisation","year":"2025"},{"key":"pwat.0000422.ref021","author":"Intergovernmental Negotiating Body WHO","year":"2025"},{"issue":"1","key":"pwat.0000422.ref022","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"34","DOI":"10.1111\/isj.12350","article-title":"A framework for applying ethics\u2010by\u2010design to decision support systems for emergency management","volume":"33","author":"A Nussbaumer","year":"2021","journal-title":"Information Systems Journal"}],"container-title":["PLOS 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