TY - JOUR

T1 - Investigation of agreement between wastewater-based epidemiology and survey data on alcohol and nicotine use in a community

AU - van Wel, J. H.P.

AU - Gracia-Lor, E.

AU - van Nuijs, A. L.N.

AU - Kinyua, J.

AU - Salvatore, S.

AU - Castiglioni, S.

AU - Bramness, J. G.

AU - Covaci, A.

AU - Van Hal, G.

N1 - Funding Information: AvN is thankful for the financial support from the FWO (Research Foundation Flanders). All authors would like to thank the inhabitants and the council of the city of Lier for their cooperation in the study. Alain Vandelannoote and the complete team of WWTP Lier (Aquafin) are greatly acknowledged for their help in the sampling of wastewater samples. Funding Information: The study is supported by funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement number 317205. The funding source had no role in study design and the collection, analysis and interpretation of data, nor in the writing of the report or in the decision to submit the article for publication. Publisher Copyright: © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd.

PY - 2016/5/1

Y1 - 2016/5/1

N2 - Background/aims: Alcohol and nicotine are the two most used substances world-wide and associated with increased burden of disease. Since surveys on substance use may be difficult due to response biases, wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) was developed as a more objective measure of nicotine and alcohol use. This study compares estimates of nicotine and alcohol use from a wastewater sampling campaign in a medium-sized Belgian city with a concurrently executed population survey. Methods: 29,083 letters about participation in an online survey study on weekly alcohol and tobacco use were sent to the inhabitants of Lier, Belgium. Wastewater samples were collected from the associated treatment plant in four bi-weekly periods. Samples were analyzed using liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Ethylsulfate was used as alcohol biomarker and cotinine and trans-3'-hydroxycotinine as nicotine biomarker. Results: 263 (1%) surveys were filled out on average per week. According to survey data, alcohol and nicotine were used less than in the rest of Belgium and this was matched by the wastewater data. Nicotine use, but not alcohol use, showed a significant variation over the sampling periods. Both nicotine and alcohol showed increase use during the weekend while only alcohol showed a different use pattern throughout the week. Conclusion: No correlation between WBE and survey data could be demonstrated, possibly due to small sample sizes. However, this study shows that weekly trends in alcohol and nicotine use can be quickly detected from wastewater analysis and the occurrence of major events such as festivals can be identified.

AB - Background/aims: Alcohol and nicotine are the two most used substances world-wide and associated with increased burden of disease. Since surveys on substance use may be difficult due to response biases, wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) was developed as a more objective measure of nicotine and alcohol use. This study compares estimates of nicotine and alcohol use from a wastewater sampling campaign in a medium-sized Belgian city with a concurrently executed population survey. Methods: 29,083 letters about participation in an online survey study on weekly alcohol and tobacco use were sent to the inhabitants of Lier, Belgium. Wastewater samples were collected from the associated treatment plant in four bi-weekly periods. Samples were analyzed using liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Ethylsulfate was used as alcohol biomarker and cotinine and trans-3'-hydroxycotinine as nicotine biomarker. Results: 263 (1%) surveys were filled out on average per week. According to survey data, alcohol and nicotine were used less than in the rest of Belgium and this was matched by the wastewater data. Nicotine use, but not alcohol use, showed a significant variation over the sampling periods. Both nicotine and alcohol showed increase use during the weekend while only alcohol showed a different use pattern throughout the week. Conclusion: No correlation between WBE and survey data could be demonstrated, possibly due to small sample sizes. However, this study shows that weekly trends in alcohol and nicotine use can be quickly detected from wastewater analysis and the occurrence of major events such as festivals can be identified.

KW - Alcohol

KW - Nicotine

KW - Population surveys

KW - Substance use

KW - Wastewater-based epidemiology

U2 - 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2016.03.002

DO - 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2016.03.002

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 26980372

AN - SCOPUS:84960414020

VL - 162

SP - 170

EP - 175

JO - Drug and Alcohol Dependence

JF - Drug and Alcohol Dependence

SN - 0376-8716

ER -