Water pollution tests could be revolutionized with an artificial sweetener. Image source: Shutterstock (#112554212).
Sucralose, an artificial sweetener, was found to be an excellent tracer for pollutants in water. It helps maintain water quality as is helps researchers and water resource managers to identify where the most pollutants are. Management of water contamination then becomes a whole lot easier.
What makes sucralose a good tracer is that it does not degrade easily. “The whole purpose of having an artificial sweetener is that the body doesn’t recognize it as fuel, so you don’t use it for energy,” says Piero Gardinali, associate professor at Florida International University. “We have seen that if you put it in a wastewater treatment plant, nothing happens to it because the microorganisms don’t recognise it as food, either.”
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