Comparison of pharmaceutical, illicit drug, alcohol, nicotine and caffeine levels in wastewater with sale, seizure and consumption data for 8 European cities

BMC Public Health

Research Article

Erika Castrignanò¹  Barbara Kasprzyk-Hordern¹  Benedek G. Plósz²  Pedram Ramin²  Alexander van Nuijs³  Juliet Kinyua³  Christoph Ort⁴  Ann-Kathrin McCall⁴  Nikolaos I. Rousis⁵  Emma Gracia-Lor⁵  Sara Castiglioni⁵  Ana Causanilles⁶  Pim de Voogt⁶  Stefania Salvatore⁷  Jorgen Bramness⁷  Kevin Thomas⁸  Malcolm Reid⁸  Yeonsuk Ryu⁸  Jose Antonio Baz-Lomba⁹  Richard Bade^1,10  Felix Hernandez^1,10 

[1] Department of Chemistry, University of Bath, Faculty of Science, BA2 7AY, Bath, UK;Department of Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Miljøvej, Building 115, DK-2800, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark;Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Toxicological Center, Campus Drie Eiken, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, 2610, Antwerp, Belgium;Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, CH-8600, Dübendorf, Switzerland;IRCCS-Istituto di Recerche Farmacologiche “Mario Negri”, Via La Masa 19, 20156, Milan, Italy;KWR Watercycle Research Institute, Chemical Water Quality and Health, P.O. Box 1072, 3430 BB, Nieuwegein, The Netherlands;Norwegian Centre for Addiction Research, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, PO box 1078, 0316, Blindern, Oslo, Norway;Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA), Gaustadalléen 21, NO-0349, Oslo, Norway;Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA), Gaustadalléen 21, NO-0349, Oslo, Norway;Norwegian Centre for Addiction Research, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, PO box 1078, 0316, Blindern, Oslo, Norway;Research Institute for Pesticides and Water, University Jaume I, Avda. Sos Baynat s/n, E-12071, Castellón, Spain;

关键词: Wastewater-based epidemiology;    Drug consumption, Correlation, Europe-wide study, Seizures, Sales statistics;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12889-016-3686-5

 received in 2016-04-23, accepted in 2016-09-20,  发布年份 2016

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundMonitoring the scale of pharmaceuticals, illicit and licit drugs consumption is important to assess the needs of law enforcement and public health, and provides more information about the different trends within different countries. Community drug use patterns are usually described by national surveys, sales and seizure data. Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) has been shown to be a reliable approach complementing such surveys.MethodThis study aims to compare and correlate the consumption estimates of pharmaceuticals, illicit drugs, alcohol, nicotine and caffeine from wastewater analysis and other sources of information. Wastewater samples were collected in 2015 from 8 different European cities over a one week period, representing a population of approximately 5 million people. Published pharmaceutical sale, illicit drug seizure and alcohol, tobacco and caffeine use data were used for the comparison.ResultsHigh agreement was found between wastewater and other data sources for pharmaceuticals and cocaine, whereas amphetamines, alcohol and caffeine showed a moderate correlation. methamphetamine and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and nicotine did not correlate with other sources of data. Most of the poor correlations were explained as part of the uncertainties related with the use estimates and were improved with other complementary sources of data.ConclusionsThis work confirms the promising future of WBE as a complementary approach to obtain a more accurate picture of substance use situation within different communities. Our findings suggest further improvements to reduce the uncertainties associated with both sources of information in order to make the data more comparable.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s). 2016