TY - JOUR

T1 - Drugs of abuse and alcohol consumption among different groups of population on the Greek Island of Lesvos through sewage-based epidemiology

AU - Gatidou, Georgia

AU - Kinyua, Juliet

AU - van Nuijs, Alexander L.N.

AU - Gracia-Lor, Emma

AU - Castiglioni, Sara

AU - Covaci, Adrian

AU - Stasinakis, Athanasios S.

N1 - Funding Information: Georgia Gatidou thanks Toxicological Center of the University of Antwerp (Belgium) for the financial support regarding sample analysis and also Mr A. Chatzigiannis and Mr. I. Moiras for their valuable help during sample collection. Part of this work was supported by the COST Action ES1307 “SCORE – Sewage biomarker analysis for community health assessment”. Alexander van Nuijs acknowledges the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) for his postdoctoral fellowship. This work and the fellowship of Juliet Kinyua and Emma Gracia-Lor was financially supported through the EU International Training Network SEWPROF (Marie Curie- Grant number 317205 ). Publisher Copyright: © 2016 Elsevier B.V.

PY - 2016/9/1

Y1 - 2016/9/1

N2 - The occurrence of 22 drugs of abuse, their metabolites, and the alcohol metabolite ethyl sulphate was investigated in raw sewage samples collected during the non-touristic season from three sewage treatment plants (STPs), which serve different sizes and types of population in the Greek island of Lesvos. Using the sewage-based epidemiology approach, the consumption of these substances was estimated. Five target analytes, cocaine (COC), benzoylecgonine (BE), 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), 11-nor-9-carboxy-delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC-COOH) and ethyl sulphate (EtS) were detected at concentrations above their limit of quantification, whereas the rest eighteen target compounds were not detected. THC-COOH was detected in most of the samples with concentrations ranging between < 20 and 90 ng L− 1, followed by EtS (range < 1700–12,243 ng L− 1). COC, BE, and MDMA were present only in the STP that serves Mytilene (the main city of the island), at mean concentrations of 3.9 ng L− 1 for COC (95% CI: 1.7–6.1), 9.4 ng L− 1 for BE (95% CI: − 1.6–23) and 3.2 ng L− 1 for MDMA (95% CI: 1.2–5.1). Back-calculations to an amount of used substance indicated more intense use of drugs among city population than rural and University population with average values of 9.5 and 1.2 mg day− 1 per 1000 inhabitants for COC (95% CI: − 1.43–20.4) and MDMA (95% CI: 0.52–1.85), respectively, and 2.8 g day− 1 per 1000 inhabitants for tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) (95% CI: 2.4–3.1), the active ingredient of cannabis. Alcohol consumption was observed to be higher in the city population (5.4 mL pure alcohol per day per inhabitant) than in the rural population (3.4 mL pure alcohol per day per inhabitant), but the difference was not statistically significant. Consumption of THC differed significantly among the three STPs.

AB - The occurrence of 22 drugs of abuse, their metabolites, and the alcohol metabolite ethyl sulphate was investigated in raw sewage samples collected during the non-touristic season from three sewage treatment plants (STPs), which serve different sizes and types of population in the Greek island of Lesvos. Using the sewage-based epidemiology approach, the consumption of these substances was estimated. Five target analytes, cocaine (COC), benzoylecgonine (BE), 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), 11-nor-9-carboxy-delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC-COOH) and ethyl sulphate (EtS) were detected at concentrations above their limit of quantification, whereas the rest eighteen target compounds were not detected. THC-COOH was detected in most of the samples with concentrations ranging between < 20 and 90 ng L− 1, followed by EtS (range < 1700–12,243 ng L− 1). COC, BE, and MDMA were present only in the STP that serves Mytilene (the main city of the island), at mean concentrations of 3.9 ng L− 1 for COC (95% CI: 1.7–6.1), 9.4 ng L− 1 for BE (95% CI: − 1.6–23) and 3.2 ng L− 1 for MDMA (95% CI: 1.2–5.1). Back-calculations to an amount of used substance indicated more intense use of drugs among city population than rural and University population with average values of 9.5 and 1.2 mg day− 1 per 1000 inhabitants for COC (95% CI: − 1.43–20.4) and MDMA (95% CI: 0.52–1.85), respectively, and 2.8 g day− 1 per 1000 inhabitants for tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) (95% CI: 2.4–3.1), the active ingredient of cannabis. Alcohol consumption was observed to be higher in the city population (5.4 mL pure alcohol per day per inhabitant) than in the rural population (3.4 mL pure alcohol per day per inhabitant), but the difference was not statistically significant. Consumption of THC differed significantly among the three STPs.

KW - Alcohol consumption

KW - Biomarker analysis

KW - Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry

KW - Psychoactive compounds

KW - Wastewater-based epidemiology

U2 - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.04.130

DO - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.04.130

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 27236142

AN - SCOPUS:84977671485

VL - 563-564

SP - 633

EP - 640

JO - Science of the Total Environment

JF - Science of the Total Environment

SN - 0048-9697

ER -