Alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine consumption on a public U.S. university campus determined by wastewater-based epidemiology.

ABSTRACT: Alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine use in at-risk populations is a public health concern that claims over 550,000 lives annually. Self-reported surveys from college students often reveal overconsumption of these substances. Unfortunately, the costs of these surveys are high, and consequently, the results from few studies are often extrapolated across the entire target population. Here we employed wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) to directly measure the levels of these three psychotropic substances and their metabolites in sewage from a large public Southwestern U.S. university campus during the 2017-2018 academic year. Results showed per person alcohol consumption was 11.3 ± 7.5 g d^-1 person^-1 or 0.8 ± 0.5 drinks d^-1 person^-1, similar to averages

SUBMITTER: Driver EM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10292129 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature