Comparison of phosphodiesterase type V inhibitors use in eight European cities through analysis of urban wastewater
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
In this work a step forward in investigating the use of prescription drugs, namely erectile dysfunction products, at European level was taken by applying the wastewater-based epidemiology approach. 24-h composite samples of untreated wastewater were collected at the entrance of eight wastewater treatment plants serving the catchment within the cities of Bristol, Brussels, Castellón, Copenhagen, Milan, Oslo, Utrecht and Zurich. A validated analytical procedure with direct injection of filtered aliquots by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry was applied. The target list included the three active pharmaceutical ingredients (sildenafil, tadalafil and vardenafil) together with (bio)transformation products and other analogues. Only sildenafil and its two human urinary metabolites desmethyl- and desethylsildenafil were detected in the samples with concentrations reaching 60 ng L−1. The concentrations were transformed into normalized measured loads and the estimated actual consumption of sildenafil was back-calculated from these loads. In addition, national prescription data from five countries was gathered in the form of the number of prescribed daily doses and transformed into predicted loads for comparison. This comparison resulted in the evidence of a different spatial trend across Europe. In Utrecht and Brussels, prescription data could only partly explain the total amount found in wastewater; whereas in Bristol, the comparison was in agreement; and in Milan and Oslo a lower amount was found in wastewater than expected from the prescription data. This study illustrates the potential of wastewater-based epidemiology to investigate the use of counterfeit medication and rogue online pharmacy sales.
Original language | English |
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Journal | Environment International |
Volume | 115 |
Pages (from-to) | 279-284 |
Number of pages | 6 |
ISSN | 0160-4120 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Jun 2018 |
Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:
This work is part of the EU Marie Curie ITN SEWPROF (Marie Curie-FP7-PEOPLE, grant number 317205) and the financial support is gratefully acknowledged. The authors thank the people and agencies that assisted in the collection of the wastewater samples and the national prescription data. Alexander van Nuijs acknowledges the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) for his scholarship. Authors also wish to acknowledge dr. Christoph Ort from Eawag for his advice and contribution to discussions.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018
- Consumption, Counterfeit, Erectile dysfunction, LC-MS/MS, Prescription drugs, Wastewater-based epidemiology
Research areas
ID: 275536646