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Published online 20 January 2003 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news030113-10
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Caffeine tracks contamination
Coffee dregs label household pollution in lakes and oceans.
Tell-tale traces of caffeine can expose the level of household waste gushing into lakes and oceans, researchers have shown.
Caffeine is an ideal chemical indicator to distinguish domestic water flushed down sinks and toilets from agricultural effluent, say Ignaz Buerge and his colleagues of the Swiss Federal Research Station in Wädenswil.
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