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The preliminary evaluation of differential characteristics and factor evaluation of the microbial structure of rural household toilet excrement in China.

ABSTRACT: Recent studies on the microbial community composition of human excrement after rural household toilet treatment are unclear regarding the effects and risks of using recycled products as fertilizers in agriculture. In this study, we used Illumina high-throughput sequencing to investigate the microbial community structure of the excrement from 50 Chinese rural household toilets on a spatial scale, and we evaluated the impact of select geochemical factors on the bacterial and fungal communities in the human excrement. Multivariate analysis showed that there was a significant spatial differentiation of the human excrement in microbial communities after all toilet treatments. Twenty dry toilet samples and thirty septic tank samples had similar bacterial (Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Bacteroidetes) and fungal phyla (Ascomycota and Basidiomycota), differing only in the proportions of the microorganisms. For both dry toilet samples and septic tank samples, the pH and ammonium nitrogen were found to be the major driving forces affecting the changes in bacterial community structures (p<0.05), while there was no correlation found for the fungal community with environmental factors in China (p>0.05), except in the northern regions, where the total phosphorus was found to be significantly correlated with the fungal community (p<0.05). Network analysis confirmed that NH₄⁺-N had the most significant impact on the content of pathogens. Certain pathogens were still detected after toilet treatment, such as Streptococcus, Bacteroides, Aspergillus, and Chrysosporium, and the proportion of potential pathogenic bacteria in dry toilets was higher than that in septic tanks, suggesting that septic tanks were better than dry toilets in treating human excrement. These results provide an ecological perspective for understanding the large-scale geographic distribution of household excrement microbial communities in rural areas and for improving human excrement treatment technologies and avoiding the risks of agricultural applications.

SUBMITTER: Gao Y

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8036012 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Abstract The household energy mix has significant impacts on human health and climate, as it contributes greatly to many health- and climate-relevant air pollutants. Compared to the well-established urban energy statistical system, the rural household energy statistical system is incomplete and is often associated with high biases. Via a nationwide investigation, this study revealed high contributions to energy supply from coal and biomass fuels in the rural household energy sector, while electricity comprised ∼20%. Stacking (the use of multiple sources of energy) is significant, and the average number of energy types was 2.8 per household. Compared to 2012, the consumption of biomass and coals in 2017 decreased by 45% and 12%, respectively, while the gas consumption amount increased by 204%. Increased gas and decreased coal consumptions were mainly in cooking, while decreased biomass was in both cooking (41%) and heating (59%). The time-sharing fraction of electricity and gases (E&G) for daily cooking grew, reaching 69% in 2017, but for space heating, traditional solid fuels were still dominant, with the national average shared fraction of E&G being only 20%. The non-uniform spatial distribution and the non-linear increase in the fraction of E&G indicated challenges to achieving universal access to modern cooking energy by 2030, particularly in less-developed rural and mountainous areas. In some non-typical heating zones, the increased share of E&G for heating was significant and largely driven by income growth, but in typical heating zones, the time-sharing fraction was <5% and was not significantly increased, except in areas with policy intervention. The intervention policy not only led to dramatic increases in the clean energy fraction for heating but also accelerated the clean cooking transition. Higher income, higher education, younger age, less energy/stove stacking and smaller family size positively impacted the clean energy transition. In rural China, affordable modern energy was increasingly adopted for cooking, and clean energy carriers were also used more for space heating.

Project description:BackgroundIn rural China ~607 million people drink boiled water, yet little is known about prevailing household water treatment (HWT) methods or their effectiveness. Boiling, the most common HWT method globally, is microbiologically effective, but household air pollution (HAP) from burning solid fuels causes cardiovascular and respiratory disease, and black carbon emissions exacerbate climate change. Boiled water is also easily re-contaminated. Our study was designed to identify the HWT methods used in rural China and to evaluate their effectiveness.MethodsWe used a geographically stratified cross-sectional design in rural Guangxi Province to collect survey data from 450 households in the summer of 2013. Household drinking water samples were collected and assayed for Thermotolerant Coliforms (TTC), and physicochemical analyses were conducted for village drinking water sources. In the winter of 2013-2104, we surveyed 120 additional households and used remote sensors to corroborate self-reported boiling data.FindingsOur HWT prevalence estimates were: 27.1% boiling with electric kettles, 20.3% boiling with pots, 34.4% purchasing bottled water, and 18.2% drinking untreated water (for these analyses we treated bottled water as a HWT method). Households using electric kettles had the lowest concentrations of TTC (73% lower than households drinking untreated water). Multilevel mixed-effects regression analyses showed that electric kettles were associated with the largest Log10TTC reduction (-0.60, p<0.001), followed by bottled water (-0.45, p<0.001) and pots (-0.44, p<0.01). Compared to households drinking untreated water, electric kettle users also had the lowest risk of having TTC detected in their drinking water (risk ratio, RR = 0.49, 0.34-0.70, p<0.001), followed by bottled water users (RR = 0.70, 0.53-0.93, p<0.05) and households boiling with pots (RR = 0.74, 0.54-1.02, p = 0.06).ConclusionAs far as we are aware, this is the first HWT-focused study in China, and the first to quantify the comparative advantage of boiling with electric kettles over pots. Our results suggest that electric kettles could be used to rapidly expand safe drinking water access and reduce HAP exposure in rural China.

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The preliminary evaluation of differential characteristics and factor evaluation of the microbial structure of rural household toilet excrement in China.

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