Cell phone data coupled with sewage testing show drug use patterns

The drugs people inhale, inject or ingest ultimately end up in some form down the toilet. So scientists have started monitoring drug use through sewage-based epidemiology. But this approach hasn’t taken into account the variation in number of people who add to wastewater in a given area at a given time. Now one team reports in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology a way to account for commutes and vacations: by tracking cell phone signals.