The embodiment of wastewater data for the estimation of illicit drug consumption in Spain

Understanding Illicit Drug Use Trends During the Carnival Holiday in the Brazilian Capital Through Wastewater Analysis

“…Estimates of cocaine consumption corroborate the high exposure of the Brazilian population to this illicit drug. The estimated average consumption in the regions served by the North-Wing and South-Wing WWTPs after Carnival, 2149 ± 479 and 1279 ± 453 mg/1000inh/day, respectively, are similar to estimations produced in Reus and Castellón-Spain (2.8 and 1.1 g/1000inh/day, respectively) (Bijlsma et al, 2021), Medellín-Colombia (3022 mg/1000inh/day) (Bijlsma et al, 2016), Reykjavik-Iceland (2660 mg/1000inh/day) (Löve et al, 2022), Fort de France-Martinique (2420 mg/1000inh/day) (Devault et al, 2014), El Roble-Costa Rica (2390 mg/1000inh/ day) (Causanilles et al, 2017b), and higher than values reported in New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland-Australia (893, 719, and 640 mg/1000inh/day) (Wilkins et al, 2018), San Luis Río Colorado-Mexico (370 mg/1000inh/day) (Cruz-Cruz et al, 2021), Athens-Greece (213 mg/1000inh/day) (Gatidou et al, 2016), Istanbul-Turkey (201 mg/1000inh/day) (Asicioglu et al, 2021), Kotka-Finland (54 mg/1000inh/day) (Kankaanpää et al, 2016), and Diyarbakır-Turkey (47 mg/ 1000inh/day) (Daglioglu et al, 2021).…”

“…As sampling starts at midnight, user contribution during Friday night social activities can be computed. This approach has been used elsewhere (Celma et al, 2019;Bijlsma et al, 2021;Kuloglu Genc et al, 2021), probably because users may abuse alcohol and other drugs during promotions such as "happy hours," which usually take place on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. In addition, Dázio et al (2016) investigate the use of alcohol and controlled drugs among male university students in Brazil and show that preferred days to use controlled substances are Fridays and Saturdays.…”

Identification of biomarkers in wastewater-based epidemiology: Main approaches and analytical methods

“…These reviews categorized biomarkers depending a little bit on the authors criterion but in all cases consumption, exposure, health/disease and lifestyle/consumption are main drivers of these classifications. Studies focus on consumption of mostly illicit drugs [ 19 , 23 , [28] , [29] , [30] , [31] , [32] , [33] , [34] , [35] , [36] , [37] , [38] , [39] , [40] , [41] ] but also food [ 42 , 43 ], artificial sweeteners [ 44 , 45 ], alcohol [ [46] , [47] , [48] , [49] , [50] , [51] ], caffeine [ 52 , 53 ], nicotine [ 47 , [51] , [52] , [53] ] and/or tobacco [ [54] , [55] , [56] , [57] , [58] ], new psychoactive substances [ 39 , [59] , [60] , [61] , [62] , [63] ], opioids [ 18 , 64 , 65 ], pharmaceuticals [ 22 , 34 , 53 , [66] , [67] , [68] , [69] , [70] , [71] , [72] ] and personal care products [ 34 ] are the most common. These studies are the most elaborated, as especially in the case of drugs of abuse, work has been ongoing since 2005 and there has been a major effort by many research groups to collaborate many times disinterestedly to systematize the methodology and address the drawbacks.…”

“…FEV:0.2 mL LC-QqQ-MS/MS ESI (+) Phenomenex Luna HILIC (150 mm × 3 mm, 5 μm) or CHIRALPAK® CBH HPLC column (amphetamine) (100 × 2 mm, 5 μm) and H 2 O and 1 mM AA and MeOH – Appropriate [ 95 ] Illicit drugs amphetamine, methamphetamine, 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine and cocaine benzoylecgonine and 11-nor-9-carboxy-Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol and several NPSs Several methods: -Strata X SPE and elution with MeOH -Online SPE PLRPs cartridges -Oasis MCX SPE and elution with 5% NH 3 in MeOH. (Different sample and extract volume Several methods based on LC-QqQ-MS/MS, ESI (+) Enantiomeric method: Lux AMP (150 × 3 mm, 3 μm) and H2O 5% NH 3 and MeOH at 0.4 mL/min <10 Appropriate [ 38 ] Illicit drugs 58 licit and illicit compounds Wastewater volume not reported. SPE in Tecan Cerex Trace-B and elution with DCM:isopropyl alcohol:NH 4 OH.…”

“…Enantiomeric analysis has been used to distinguish human-eliminated drugs from those from a direct release (when the latter is suspected based on daily fluctuations in mass loading), particularly, for the amphetamic compounds [ 38 , 95 ]. This approach is more beneficial when the parent compound is used as human biomarker [ 95 ] but there are also cases of pharmaceuticals, which render enantiomerically pure substances where enantiomeric analysis is also useful [ 96 ].…”