Wastewater analysis for nicotine, cocaine, amphetamines, opioids and cannabis in New York City

Abstract

According to current surveys and overdoses data, there is a drug crisis in the USA. Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) is an evolving discipline that analyses wastewater samples to detect drugs and metabolites to estimate drug consumption in a certain community. This study demonstrates how drug relative presence could be tracked by testing wastewater, providing real-time results, in different boroughs in New York City throughout 1 year. We developed and fully validated two analytical methods, one for 21 drugs and metabolites, including nicotine, cocaine, amphetamines, opioids and cannabis markers; and another for the normalization factor creatinine. Both methods were performed by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) using positive electrospray ionization, achieving a limit of quantification of 5-10 ng/L for drugs and metabolites, and 0.01 mg/L for creatinine. These methods were applied to 48 one-time grab wastewater samples collected from six wastewater treatment plants in New York City (Manhattan, The Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn), eight different times throughout 2016, before and after major holidays, including Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labour Day and New Year's. In this study, the drug group normalized concentrations present in the wastewater samples, in decreasing order, were cocaine, nicotine, opioids, cannabis and amphetamines. When looking at individual compounds, the one with the highest normalized concentration was benzoylecgonine (BE), followed by cotinine, morphine and 11-nor-9-carboxy-tetrahydrocannabinol (THCCOOH). To estimate community use, these concentrations were multiplied by the corresponding correction factor, and the most present were THCCOOH, followed by BE, cotinine and morphine. When comparing the treatment plants by drug group (nicotine, cocaine, amphetamines, opioids and cannabis), samples collected from The Bronx had the highest normalized concentrations for nicotine, cocaine and opioids; The Bronx and Manhattan for cannabis; and Manhattan and Queens for amphetamines. In most of the cases, no effect due to holiday was observed. This study provides the first snapshot of drug use in New York City and how that changes between key calendar dates employing wastewater analysis.

“Waste Not, Want Not” — Leveraging Sewer Systems and Wastewater-Based Epidemiology for Drug Use Trends and Pharmaceutical Monitoring

“…In a recent WBE study from New York City, the drug group concentrations present in the wastewater samples (in decreasing order) were cocaine, nicotine, opioids, cannabis, and amphetamines. When analyzing these individual compounds and their metabolites, the highest normalized concentration was benzoylecgonine (BE), followed by cotinine, morphine, and 11- nor -9-carboxy-tetrahydrocannabinol (THCCOOH) [ 56 ].…”

“…Information based on wastewater epidemiology and consumption behavior suggests that drug use monitoring may benefit from seasonal surveillance and further analysis during key calendar dates, holidays, and weekends [ 56 , 58 , 59 ]. There is a long-standing association between traditional and emerging drugs at warm weather mass gathering such as music festivals featuring heavy metal, rock, pop, country, folk, ethnic, dance, and trance.…”

High-throughput multi-residue quantification of contaminants of emerging concern in wastewaters enabled using direct injection liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

“…Most analytical techniques for targeted CEC determinations have used liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) for pharmaceuticals ( Paíga et al, 2019 ; Yuan et al, 2014 ), illicit drugs ( Bannwarth et al, 2019 ; Centazzo et al, 2019 ; Baker et al, 2014 ) and pesticides ( Zhang et al, 2011 ; Jones et al, 2017 ; Köck-Schulmeyer et al, 2013 ) in wastewaters. LC–MS/MS using triple quadrupole mass analysers has dominated targeted CEC analysis due to their sensitivity, quantitative precision and selectivity via multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) ( Malachová et al, 2018 ).…”

Unrestricted Online Sharing of High-frequency, High-resolution Data on SARS-CoV-2 in Wastewater to Inform the COVID-19 Public Health Response in Greater Tempe, Arizona

“…Estimating population size by study area was challenging due to the unique nature of collecting wastewater from within the sewer infrastructure rather than by determining the population by counting the residents of local buildings served by a wastewater treatment plant as performed in traditional WBE studies 27,28 . As a net importer of people to the City for work, it was important not only to quantify the residents but also the non-resident employed and transient student populations, a task accomplished by using Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) and oncampus student resident data provided by ASU.…”