Mapping international drug use through the world's largest wastewater study

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/10/191023093445.htm

In a paper released today [Oct 23, 2019] in Addiction, researchers from 41 international institutions released their findings after analysing sewage samples from 60 million people between 2011 and 2017, the largest wastewater-based study undertaken in the world.

Researchers mapped the global use of four illicit drugs in their study -- amphetamine, methamphetamine (also known as 'ice'), ecstasy and cocaine -- but the first three years were confined to European cities while from 2014 onwards, cities in Australia, New Zealand, Colombia, Martinique, Canada, the US, South Korea and Israel were monitored.

The results:

• From 2011-2017, cocaine levels were highest in London, Bristol, Amsterdam, Zurich. Geneva, St Gallen and Antwerp, with levels of between 600-900 mg/1000 people per day recorded. Overall, cocaine use increased by nearly 13 per cent over five years.
• Amphetamine loads were highest in Belgium, The Netherlands, and across northern European countries, including Swedish cities and Reykjavik in Iceland.
• The amount of methamphetamine (ice) excreted in Australasia and North America was huge, far exceeding levels in eastern Europe, which was at the time still considered high with average levels more than 150 mg/1000 people per day.
• The Netherlands recorded the highest mass loads of ecstasy over the seven years of the study, although increases were also reported in cities like Helsinki, Oslo, Amsterdam, Brussels and Barcelona.

The cities with the highest overall drug levels in Europe include Antwerp, Amsterdam, Zurich, London and Barcelona, while at the other end of the scale, cities in Greece, Portugal, Finland, Poland and Sweden have the lowest rates of drug use.

Outside Europe, Medellin (Colombia), Adelaide and the US city of Seattle all recorded relatively high drug levels, although Medellin's figures were mainly due to cocaine while Adelaide and Seattle have very high levels of methamphetamine.

It's important we determine the scale of the illicit drug market so that countries can work out the best way to tackle a $100 billion industry, which is contributing to the global burden of disease and affecting the economic development of many countries.

Another article points out this is an emerging field that will continue to expand:

https://www.medicalxpress.com/news/2019-10-international-drug-wastewater.html

Wastewater-based epidemiology [WBE] is a rapidly developing scientific discipline with the potential for monitoring close to real-time, population-level trends in illicit drug use.

The expertise developed was also instrumental in designing and conducting the pilot project that Statistics Canada started in March 2018 on the monitoring of drug consumption through wastewater analysis in order to collect additional data in the context of the legalization of cannabis.

Study Conclusions

This is the largest WBE study ever performed in terms of cities (120) and countries (37) involved and of the monitoring duration (2011–17). The extensive data set obtained for cocaine, amphetamine, methamphetamine and MDMA showed a comprehensive picture of spatial and temporal trends of use.

Despite the limitation of monitoring few cities per country and comparing results with national statistics, the broader WBE picture corresponds to the epidemiological indicators considered, e.g. prevalence data and seizures statistics, demonstrating the capability of WBE to be used as an additional and complementary indicator of drug use.

WBE provides updated and objective estimates of drug use and allows identifying and highlighting new trends and specific profiles of use much earlier than other epidemiological indicators. WBE can serve as an extremely flexible tool for application at different spatial and temporal scales and can indicate mitigation measures nearly in real time. Thus, merging WBE results with information from other epidemiological indicators can improve our understanding of the drug use scenario.

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the following countries, institutions and projects:

- Australia: Thyne Reid foundation;

- Canada: Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC);

- Iceland: The Icelandic Research Fund (Grant number 163049–051);

- Slovenia: Slovene Research Agency (funding Project L1–9191);

- Spain: MINECO/AEI projects (CTM2014–56628‐C3–2‐R, CTQ2015–65603‐P, CTM2016–81935‐REDT, CTM2017–84763‐C3–2‐R), Galician Council of Culture, Education and Universities (ED481D 2017/003);

- UK: Environmental Sustainability Knowledge Transfer Network, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and Thermo Fisher Scientific (CASE industrial scholarship for K. Munro, Ref.: EP/J502029/1). European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA); EU International Training Network SEWPROF (Marie Curie‐FP7‐PEOPLE, grant number 317205); COST Action ES1307 supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology); WATCH (Wastewater Analysis of Traces of illicit drug‐related Chemicals for law enforcement and public Health DG migration and Home affairs ‐ HOME/2015/ISFP/PR/DRUG/0062).

Sampling support and provision of catchment information

• Austria: Klemens Geiger and Michael Schlapp;
• Belgium: Jonathan Phariseau, Bart Coene, Luc Van Os, Peter Nys, Dieter Lemaire, Jean‐François Mougel, Patrick Vantroyen and Karel Claes;
• Croatia: Marin Ganjto;
• Czech Republic: Jiri Stara and Robert Hrich Brněnské;
• France: Véronique Bremont;
• Italy: Roberto Mazzini and Francesca Pizza (Milan), Francesco Avolio (Bologna), Fabrizio Moratto and Sergio Ghezzi (Gorizia), Rosanna Brienza and Simona Panariello (Potenza), Pier Paolo Abis and Antonia Attanasio (Bari), Antonella Cicala (Palermo);
• Norway: Pia Ryrfors;
• Portugal: João Goulão, José Martins, Pedro Alvaro and Fátima Paixão;
• Slovakia: Silvia Antalová and Jozef Tichy;
• Spain: Begoña Martínez López, Cristian Mesa, Santiago Querol Rodriguez, Fernando Llavador, Enrique Albors and Gloria Fayos;
• the Netherlands: Alex Veltman, Peter Theijssen, Peter van Dijk, Stefan Wijers, Mark Stevens, Ferry de Wilde.

Analytical support

• Australia: Maulik Ghetia;
• Cyprus: Popi Karaolia;
• Greece: Nikoilaos Raikos;
• Spain: Ana Maria Botero‐Coy, Clara Boix, Alberto Celma, Jorge Pitarch, Inés Racamonde and Eddie Fonseca; - Italy: Emma Gracia‐Lor, Nikolaos I. Rousis and Noelia Salgueiro‐Gonzalez.

Data repository and data screening

• Eawag: Harald von Waldow;
• EMCDDA: Renate Hochwieser, Liesbeth Vandam, João Matias and Federica Mathis.

Journal Publication

© 2019 The Authors. Addiction published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society for the Study of Addiction

Funding Information

• European Cooperation in Science and Technology. Grant Number: COST Action ES1307
• European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA)
• The Icelandic Research Fund. Grant Number: 163049‐051
• Wastewater Analysis of Traces of illicit drug‐related Chemicals for law enforcement and public Health (WATCH). Grant Number: HOME/2015/ISFP/PR/DRUG/0062
• EU International Training Network SEWPROF. Grant Numbers: 317205, Marie Curie‐FP7‐PEOPLE
• Environmental Sustainability Knowledge Transfer Network, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and Thermo Fisher Scientific
• Galician Council of Culture, Education and Universities. Grant Number: ED481D 2017/003
• MINECO/AEI. Grant Numbers: CTM2014‐56628‐C3‐2‐R, CTM2016‐81935‐REDT, CTM2017‐84763‐C3‐2‐R, CTQ2015‐65603‐P
• Slovene Research Agency. Grant Number: L1‐9191
• Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)
• Thyne Reid Foundation

Though there is clearly data from the US, the support/funding for the US portion is absent in the acknowledgments, as far as I can tell.

Should governments be spying on our sewage?

This field of research is currently expanding. How far will they take it?

Are the science-fiction depictions of our toilets analyzing our waste that far off? Where will that information be sent?

Will you sign up for the Google toilet?