EAGER: PPER: GOALI: Down the drain - using citizen science to inventory titanium dioxide in personal care products

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Good water quality from municipal wastewater treatment plants is critical to public health and safety.  A growing concern is the increasing use of additives to food and personal care products that ultimately enter the sewage systems and may affect these treatment plants.  One of the more common of these additives is titanium dioxide (TiO2), which is often added as tiny particles to whiten foods, toothpastes, sunscreen, and skin care products.  The estimated global annual production of TiO2 is about 85,000 tons. The ubiquity of TiO2 in personal care products means that a significant portion is washed down the drain (for example, using toothpaste to clean teeth or washing lotions off through showering). This Citizen Science project is a partnership with the Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District and the University of Wisconsin - Madison to study TiO2 entering the wastewater treatment plant through personal care product usage.  Information is being collected from citizen scientists to inventory the amounts of TiO2 in consumer products by household. This information is then being used to model TiO2 entry into the wastewater treatment plant and to determine how detrimental this may be to water quality and the environment.This research project is generating the first household level inventory of TiO2 enabled consumer products and determining whether the quantity of TiO2 entering the wastewater treatment plant is sufficient to cause concern and potential treatment disruptions. This research integrates citizen scientists in a two-way flow of information and will determine potential solutions for the entry of TiO2 into the treatment plant and eventually the environment (through effluent from the treatment plant and agriculturally utilized biosolids). This work is determining if TiO2 from personal care products is a major route of TiO2 entering the environment. This research also has implications from a policy standpoint, in particular with respect to future regulation of TiO2. The specific objectives of the proposed work are: 1) Create a household relevant inventory of TiO2 containing personal care products based on citizen scientist responses, 2) Model the TiO2 entering the treatment plant and eventually discharged to receiving waters as a function of the household profiles, and, 3) Hold a citizen scientist roundtable meeting, to present the results of the study, and gain insight from the citizens into future solutions. The Citizen Scientist Roundtable meeting will be held after the completion of the inventory and modeling stages of the proposed work. The residents of the Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District service area who complete the survey will be invited to the roundtable discussion. A version of the model will be available for the citizen scientists to use.