Dr Leon Barron studies London’s wastewater, analysing it in all its chemical, narcotic, polluted glory, before and after treatment. Amazingly, he still drinks the stuff from the tap
Tales of the riverside: When water scientist Dr Leon Barron moved to London, proximity to the Thames was a big draw.Tales of the riverside: When water scientist Dr Leon Barron moved to London, proximity to the Thames was a big draw.Water detective knows what you’re up to. He knows what prescribed drugs you’re on – painkillers, antidepressants, antipsychotics or beta blockers – and what illicit ones you’re taking for fun.
That allows Barron to capture a precise snapshot not of individual behaviour, but of what’s happening in a city, or part of a city. In a recently published, for example, analysis allowed his team to trace how the chemical profile of 14 waterways around London evolved over the pandemic, and how levels of various drugs declined during lockdown then recovered . They included the anti-anxiety drugs, antidepressants, antibiotics and pain medication, as well as cocaine.something of a speciality.
Now water is at the heart of his White City lab, built to his precise spec when his team moved to Imperial College in 2020. It also investigates the “chemical footprint” of homes, the impact of pesticides on soil and invertebrates and street air quality, but at its heart is the 24/7 high-grade water analysis lab with its rumbling mass spectrometers. It doesn’t smell at all, if you’re curious . The whole place is sleek and hi-tech, packed with expensive equipment.
In contrast to his forensic work, the aim here is prevention: preventing deaths from a toxic batch of some new drug, exploring what antidepressant use information reveals about prevalence of depression, or providing information to allow law enforcement and treatment initiatives to be more precisely targeted. “The emphasis is on providing support where it’s needed.”
Even though “Emerging Chemical Contaminants” is in his job title, Barron counsels against a blanket fear of chemicals. When we meet, I’m reeling from ain his research, that “chemical pollution causes approximately 10 million excess deaths worldwide, representing more fatalities than war and murder.” While not considered dangerous to humans, these chemicals seem to be washing out to sewers, ending up in rivers as wastewater treatment can’t remove them.Since he is someone who has spent his career observing and analysing rivers, I’m interested what Barron thinks about the current state of ours, constantly in the, and a source of public rage and distress. He agrees they are in serious trouble. Normally, he says, he wouldn’t have a public presence.
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