Spatio-temporal assessment of illicit drug use at large scale: evidence from 7 years of international wastewater monitoring.

ABSTRACT:

Background and aims

Wastewater-based epidemiology is an additional indicator of drug use that is gaining reliability to complement the current established panel of indicators. The aims of this study were to: (i) assess spatial and temporal trends of population-normalized mass loads of benzoylecgonine, amphetamine, methamphetamine and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) in raw wastewater over 7 years (2011-17); (ii) address overall drug use by estimating the average number of combined doses consumed per day in each city; and (iii) compare these with existing prevalence and seizure data.

Design

Analysis of daily raw wastewater composite samples collected over 1 week per year from 2011 to 2017.

Setting and participants

Catchment areas of 143 wastewater treatment pla

SUBMITTER: Gonzalez-Marino I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6973045 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature