News from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences reports how advances in analyzing the contents of wastewater has become an effective, noninvasive and cost-saving method that helps track the prevalence and spread of diseases in communities. The institute’s recent Partnerships for Environmental Public Health event focused on the emerging science and environmental engineering that is advancing wastewater-based epidemiology. Among those whose work is contributing to progress in this area is Fulton Schools Professor Rolf Halden (pictured), who has helped to pioneer this field of epidemiology for more than two decades. His research has led to a ban on antimicrobials in consumer products that proved to present public health risks and advances in detection of COVID-19 in communities through new wastewater analysis methods.