TY - JOUR
T1 - New psychoactive substances in several European populations assessed by wastewater-based epidemiology
AU - Castiglioni, Sara
AU - Salgueiro-González, Noelia
AU - Bijlsma, Lubertus
AU - Celma, Alberto
AU - Gracia-Lor, Emma
AU - Beldean-Galea, Mihail Simion
AU - Mackuľak, Tomáš
AU - Emke, Erik
AU - Heath, Ester
AU - Kasprzyk-Hordern, Barbara
AU - Petkovic, Andjelka
AU - Poretti, Francesco
AU - Rangelov, Jeliaz
AU - Santos, Miguel M.
AU - Sremački, Maja
AU - Styszko, Katarzyna
AU - Hernández, Felix
AU - Zuccato, Ettore
N1 - Funding Information:
Lubertus Bijlsma wishes to thank Ettore Zuccato, Sara Castiglioni and the Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri (Milan, Italy) for hosting him as a post-doc researcher. Alberto Celma acknowledges the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for his predoctoral grant (BES-2016-076914). F?lix Hern?ndez acknowledges MINECO (Project CTQ2015-65603-P), as well as Generalitat Valenciana (Research Group of Excellence, Prometeo 2019/040). The collecting of samples in Krakow was supported by ??Municipal Waterworks and Sewer Enterprise in Krakow??. We greatly acknowledge Igor Bod?k, Slovak University of Technology, Bratislava, Slovakia; Fiona Regan Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland; Jaroslav Slobodnik and Natalia Glowacka, Environmental Institute of Kos, Slovak Republic; Mariya Skobley, Ukraine, for the help provided for samples collection. Wessex Water is acknowledged for samples provision in the UK. This work was supported by the European Commission [grant HOME/2014/JDRUG/AG/DRUG/7086 - NPS-Euronet]. This research was partially funded by the AGH UST grant 16.16.210.476 subsidy of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier Ltd
Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/5/1
Y1 - 2021/5/1
N2 - Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) can be a useful tool to face some of the existing challenges in monitoring the use of new psychoactive substances (NPS), as it can provide objective and updated information. This Europe-wide study aimed to verify the suitability of WBE for investigating the use of NPS. Selected NPS were monitored in urban wastewater by high performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS). The main classical illicit drugs were monitored in the same samples to compare their levels with those of NPS. Raw composite wastewater samples were collected in 2016 and 2017 in 14 European countries (22 cities) following best practice sampling protocols. Methcathinone was most frequent (>65% of the cities), followed by mephedrone (>25% of the cities), and only mephedrone, methcathinone and methylone were found in both years. This study depicts the use of NPS in Europe, confirming that it is much lower than the use of classical drugs. WBE proved able to assess the qualitative and quantitative spatial and temporal profiles of NPS use. The results show the changeable nature of the NPS market and the importance of large WBE monitoring campaigns for selected priority NPS. WBE is valuable for complementing epidemiological studies to follow rapidly changing profiles of use of drugs.
AB - Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) can be a useful tool to face some of the existing challenges in monitoring the use of new psychoactive substances (NPS), as it can provide objective and updated information. This Europe-wide study aimed to verify the suitability of WBE for investigating the use of NPS. Selected NPS were monitored in urban wastewater by high performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS). The main classical illicit drugs were monitored in the same samples to compare their levels with those of NPS. Raw composite wastewater samples were collected in 2016 and 2017 in 14 European countries (22 cities) following best practice sampling protocols. Methcathinone was most frequent (>65% of the cities), followed by mephedrone (>25% of the cities), and only mephedrone, methcathinone and methylone were found in both years. This study depicts the use of NPS in Europe, confirming that it is much lower than the use of classical drugs. WBE proved able to assess the qualitative and quantitative spatial and temporal profiles of NPS use. The results show the changeable nature of the NPS market and the importance of large WBE monitoring campaigns for selected priority NPS. WBE is valuable for complementing epidemiological studies to follow rapidly changing profiles of use of drugs.
KW - Europe
KW - monitoring
KW - new psychoactive substances
KW - spatial and temporal trends
KW - Urban wastewater
KW - use profiles
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85102279584&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.watres.2021.116983
DO - 10.1016/j.watres.2021.116983
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85102279584
VL - 195
JO - Water Research
JF - Water Research
SN - 0043-1354
M1 - 116983
ER -
