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

TY - JOUR

T1 - Comparison of pharmaceutical, illicit drug, alcohol, nicotine and caffeine levels in wastewater with sale, seizure and consumption data for 8 European cities

AU - Baz-Lomba, Jose Antonio

AU - Salvatore, Stefania

AU - Gracia-Lor, Emma

AU - Bade, Richard

AU - Castiglioni, Sara

AU - Castrignanò, Erika

AU - Causanilles, Ana

AU - Hernandez, Felix

AU - Kasprzyk-Hordern, Barbara

AU - Kinyua, Juliet

AU - McCall, Ann Kathrin

AU - Van Nuijs, Alexander

AU - Ort, Christoph

AU - Plósz, Benedek G.

AU - Ramin, Pedram

AU - Reid, Malcolm

AU - Rousis, Nikolaos I.

AU - Ryu, Yeonsuk

AU - De Voogt, Pim

AU - Bramness, Jorgen

AU - Thomas, Kevin

N1 - Funding Information: Jose Antonio Baz Lomba, Stefania Salvatore, Richard Bade, Erika Castrignanò, Ana Causanilles, Juliet Kinyua, Ann-Kathrin McCall, Pedram Ramin, Nikolaos I. Rousis, and Yeonsuk Ryu acknowledge the EU Marie-Skłodowska Curie Initial Training Network SEWPROF (Marie Curie-FP7-PEOPLE, grant number 317205) for their Early Stage Researcher grant and Emma Gracia-Lor for her Experienced Researcher grant. We thank the people and agencies who assisted in the collection of the wastewater samples, in particular Pia Ryrfors and colleagues at Vestfjorden Avløpselskap (VEAS, Oslo, Norway). Publisher Copyright: © 2016 The Author(s).

PY - 2016/10/1

Y1 - 2016/10/1

N2 - Background: Monitoring 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. Method: This 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. Results: High 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. Conclusions: This 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.

AB - Background: Monitoring 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. Method: This 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. Results: High 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. Conclusions: This 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.

KW - Drug consumption, Correlation, Europe-wide study, Seizures, Sales statistics

KW - Wastewater-based epidemiology

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85082343810&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1186/s12889-016-3686-5

DO - 10.1186/s12889-016-3686-5

M3 - Article

C2 - 27716139

AN - SCOPUS:85082343810

SN - 1471-2458

VL - 16

SP - 1

EP - 11

JO - BMC Public Health

JF - BMC Public Health

IS - 1

M1 - 1035

ER -