Assessment of total uncertainty in cocaine and benzoylecgonine wastewater load measurements

WATER RESEARCH

卷:45

Article

Mathieu, Christoph¹  Rieckermann, Joerg²  Berset, Jean-Daniel³  Schuerch, Stefan⁴  Brenneisen, Rudolf¹ 

[1] Univ Bern, Dept Clin Res, CH-3010 Bern, Switzerland

[2] Swiss Fed Inst Aquat Sci & Technol EAWAG, Dubendorf, Switzerland

[3] Water & Soil Protect Lab WSPL, Bern, Switzerland

[4] Univ Bern, Dept Chem & Biochem, CH-3010 Bern, Switzerland

关键词: Sewage treatment plant;    Wastewater;    Cocaine and benzoylecgonine loads;    Analytical uncertainty;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.watres.2011.09.049

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

To check the effectiveness of campaigns preventing drug abuse or indicating local effects of efforts against drug trafficking, it is beneficial to know consumed amounts of substances in a high spatial and temporal resolution. The analysis of drugs of abuse in wastewater (WW) has the potential to provide this information. In this study, the reliability of WW drug consumption estimates is assessed and a novel method presented to calculate the total uncertainty in observed WW cocaine (COC) and benzoylecgonine (BE) loads. Specifically, uncertainties resulting from discharge measurements, chemical analysis and the applied sampling scheme were addressed and three approaches presented. These consist of (i) a generic model-based procedure to investigate the influence of the sampling scheme on the uncertainty of observed or expected drug loads, (ii) a comparative analysis of two analytical methods (high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry), including an extended cross-validation by influent profiling over several days, and (iii) monitoring COC and BE concentrations in WW of the largest Swiss sewage treatment plants. In addition, the COC and BE loads observed in the sewage treatment plant of the city of Berne were used to back-calculate the COC consumption. The estimated mean daily consumed amount was 107 +/- 21 g of pure COC, corresponding to 321 g of street-grade COC. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

【 授权许可】

Free