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

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Abstract

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.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12889-016-3686-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Most cited references 62

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Estimating Community Drug Abuse by Wastewater Analysis

Ettore Zuccato, Chiara Chiabrando, Sara Castiglioni … (2008)

Background The social and medical problems of drug abuse are a matter of increasing global concern. To tackle drug abuse in changing scenarios, international drug agencies need fresh methods to monitor trends and patterns of illicit drug consumption. Objective We tested a sewage epidemiology approach, using levels of excreted drug residues in wastewater, to monitor collective use of the major drugs of abuse in near real time. Methods Selected drug target residues derived from use of cocaine, opiates, cannabis, and amphetamines were measured by mass spectrometry in wastewater collected at major sewage treatment plants in Milan (Italy), Lugano (Switzerland), and London (United Kingdom). The amounts of drug residues conveyed to the treatment plants, reflecting the amounts collectively excreted with urine, were used to estimate consumption of the active parent drugs. Results Reproducible and characteristic profiles of illicit drug use were obtained in the three cities, thus for the first time quickly revealing changes in local consumption (e.g., cocaine consumption rose significantly on weekends in Milan). Profiles of local drug consumption based on waste-water measurements are in line with national annual prevalence estimates. Conclusions Patterns and trends of drug abuse in local communities can be promptly monitored by this tool, a convenient new complement to more complex, lengthy survey methods. In principle, searching the sewage for excreted compounds relevant to public health issues appears to have the potential to become a convenient source of real-time epidemiologic information.

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Household Disposal of Pharmaceuticals as a Pathway for Aquatic Contamination in the United Kingdom

Jonathan Bound, Nikolaos Voulvoulis (2005)

Pharmaceuticals are produced and used in increasingly large volumes every year. With this growth comes concern about the fate and effects of these compounds in the environment. The discovery of pharmaceuticals in the aquatic environment has stimulated research in the last decade. A wide range of pharmaceuticals has been found in fresh and marine waters, and it has recently been shown that even in small quantities, some of these compounds have the potential to cause harm to aquatic life. The primary pathway into the environment is the use and disposal of medicines; although much of the research in the area currently focuses on the removal of pharmaceuticals during sewage treatment processes, disposal via household waste might be a significant pathway requiring further research. To investigate the household disposal of unused and expired pharmaceuticals as a source of pharmaceutical compounds in the environment, we carried out a survey and interviewed members of 400 households, predominantly from southeastern England. We used the information on when and how they disposed of unfinished pharmaceuticals to construct a conceptual model to assess the pathways of human pharmaceuticals into the environment. The model demonstrated that disposal of unused pharmaceuticals, either by household waste or via the sink or toilet, may be a prominent route that requires greater attention.

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Beverage caffeine intakes in the U.S.

Diane C Mitchell, Carol A Knight, Jon Hockenberry … (2014)

Caffeine is one of the most researched food components, with the vast majority of dietary contributions coming from beverage consumption; however, there is little population-level data on caffeine intakes in the U.S. This study estimated the caffeine intakes of the U.S. population using a comprehensive beverage survey, the Kantar Worldpanel Beverage Consumption Panel. A nationally representative sample of 37,602 consumers (aged ≥ 2 years) of caffeinated beverages completed 7-day diaries which facilitated the development of a detailed database of caffeine values to assess intakes. Results showed that 85% of the U.S. population consumes at least one caffeinated beverage per day. The mean (±SE) daily caffeine intake from all beverages was 165±1 mg for all ages combined. Caffeine intake was highest in consumers aged 50-64 years (226±2 mg/day). The 90th percentile intake was 380 mg/day for all ages combined. Coffee was the primary contributor to caffeine intakes in all age groups. Carbonated soft drinks and tea provided a greater percentage of caffeine in the younger (<18 years) age groups. The percentage of energy drink consumers across all age groups was low (≤10%). These data provide a current perspective on caffeinated beverage consumption patterns and caffeine intakes in the U.S. population.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Jose Antonio Baz-Lomba: 0047 98215460 , Joseantonio.baz@niva.no

Stefania Salvatore: stefania.salvatore@medisin.uio.no

Emma Gracia-Lor: emma.gracialor@marionegri.it

Richard Bade: bade@uji.es

Sara Castiglioni: sara.castiglioni@marionegri.it

Erika Castrignanò: E.Castrignano@bath.ac.uk

Ana Causanilles: ana.Causanilles.Llanes@kwrwater.nl

Felix Hernandez: hernandf@uji.es

Barbara Kasprzyk-Hordern: B.Kasprzyk-Hordern@bath.ac.uk

Juliet Kinyua: juliet.kinyua@uantwerpen.be

Ann-Kathrin McCall: Ann-Kathrin.McCall@eawag.ch

Alexander van Nuijs: Alexander.vanNuijs@ua.ac.be

Christoph Ort: Christoph.Ort@eawag.ch

Benedek G. Plósz: beep@env.dtu.dk

Pedram Ramin: pear@env.dtu.dk

Malcolm Reid: mre@niva.no

Nikolaos I. Rousis: Nikolaos.Rousis@marionegri.it

Yeonsuk Ryu: yry@niva.no

Pim de Voogt: w.p.devoogt@uva.nl

Jorgen Bramness: j.g.bramness@medisin.uio.no

Kevin Thomas: kth@niva.no

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): BMC Public Health

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): BMC Public Health

Title: BMC Public Health

Publisher: BioMed Central (London )

ISSN (Electronic): 1471-2458

Publication date (Electronic): 1 October 2016

Publication date PMC-release: 1 October 2016

Publication date Collection: 2016

Volume: 16

Electronic Location Identifier: 1035

Affiliations

[1 ]Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA), Gaustadalléen 21, Oslo, NO-0349 Norway

[2 ]Norwegian Centre for Addiction Research, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, PO box 1078, Blindern, Oslo 0316 Norway

[3 ]IRCCS-Istituto di Recerche Farmacologiche “Mario Negri”, Via La Masa 19, Milan, 20156 Italy

[4 ]Research Institute for Pesticides and Water, University Jaume I, Avda. Sos Baynat s/n, Castellón, E-12071 Spain

[5 ]Department of Chemistry, University of Bath, Faculty of Science, Bath, BA2 7AY UK

[6 ]KWR Watercycle Research Institute, Chemical Water Quality and Health, P.O. Box 1072, Nieuwegein, 3430 BB The Netherlands

[7 ]Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Toxicological Center, Campus Drie Eiken, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, Antwerp, 2610 Belgium

[8 ]Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Dübendorf, CH-8600 Switzerland

[9 ]Department of Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Miljøvej, Building 115, Kgs. Lyngby, DK-2800 Denmark

Article

Publisher ID: 3686

DOI: 10.1186/s12889-016-3686-5

PMC ID: 5045646

PubMed ID: 28549262

SO-VID: 42686c5b-d1df-4028-b69a-814a13f7bdab

License:

Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

History

Date received : 23 April 2016

Date accepted : 20 September 2016

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ScienceOpen disciplines: Public health

Keywords: wastewater-based epidemiology,drug consumption, correlation, europe-wide study, seizures, sales statistics

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ScienceOpen disciplines: Public health

Keywords: wastewater-based epidemiology, drug consumption, correlation, europe-wide study, seizures, sales statistics

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

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Abstract

Background

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Karger: Digital Health

Most cited references 62

Estimating Community Drug Abuse by Wastewater Analysis

Household Disposal of Pharmaceuticals as a Pathway for Aquatic Contamination in the United Kingdom

Beverage caffeine intakes in the U.S.

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