An analysis of ethical issues in using wastewater analysis to monitor illicit drug use

Abstract

Aims To discuss ethical issues that may arise in using WWA to monitor illicit drug use in the general population and in entertainment precincts, prisons, schools and work‐places. Method Review current applications of WWA and identify ethical and social issues that may be raised with current and projected future uses of this method. Results Wastewater analysis (WWA) of drug residues is a promising method of monitoring illicit drug use that may overcome some limitations of other monitoring methods. When used for monitoring purposes in large populations, WWA does not raise major ethical concerns because individuals are not identified and the prospects of harming residents of catchment areas are remote. When WWA is used in smaller catchment areas (entertainment venues, prisons, schools or work‐places) their results could, possibly, indirectly affect the occupants adversely. Researchers will need to take care in reporting their results to reduce media misreporting. Fears about possible use of WWA for mass individual surveillance by drug law enforcement officials are unlikely to be realized, but will need to be addressed because they may affect public support adversely for this type of research. Conclusions Using wastewater analysis to monitor illicit drug use in large populations does not raise major ethical concerns, but researchers need to minimize possible adverse consequences in studying smaller populations, such as workers, prisoners and students.

Challenges of surveying wastewater drug loads of small populations and generalizable aspects on optimizing monitoring design

“…disadvantaged suburb) [37]. In view of the negligible risk of (in)direct harm to residents, no ethical issues are expected for WWA studies in large, general populations (ballpark ≥10 000 people) if findings do not relate to a specific group (e.g.…”

“…In view of the negligible risk of (in)direct harm to residents, no ethical issues are expected for WWA studies in large, general populations (ballpark ≥10 000 people) if findings do not relate to a specific group (e.g. disadvantaged suburb) [37]. In the future, WWA may be particularly useful to determine differences between rural and metropolitan areas and to calculate representative country-wide averages.…”

Temporal dynamics of human-excreted pollutants in wastewater treatment plant influents: Toward a better knowledge of mass load fluctuations

“…The selected WTP 5 has a capacity of 94,000 population-equivalents corrected to 70,000 inhabitants (inh) considering the number of inhabitants on the catchment. Because IDs are not innocuous pollutants from a political and epidemiological point of view, the exact emplacement of the WTP investigated in this study is not disclosed, in accordance with ethical guidelines (Hall et al, 2012;Prichard et al, 2014)…”

Using quantitative wastewater analysis to measure daily usage of conventional and emerging illicit drugs at an annual music festival

“…The method provides an objective and non-intrusive way of measuring drug consumption in the population contributing to a sewer catchment. The method also protects individual anonymity because samples are collected from pooled and intermingled wastewater, avoiding potential ethical issues arising from identifying urine samples of individual drug users [9]. It has been demonstrated that data from wastewater analysis can be an effective complement to traditional epidemiological methods for studying illicit drug use (e.g.…”