- EN
In aqua veritas? Illicit drugs in wastewater
A novel approach to monitoring illicit drug use in the community was showcased by the EMCDDA in December in the latest edition of its Insights series. Entitled Assessing illicit drugs in waste water: potential and limitations of a new monitor ing approach, the report looks at how analysing communal wastewater (e.g. from treatment plants) for residues of illicit drugs can provide real-time insights into local drug consumption levels and trends.
The report explains how technological advances and more sensitive detection techniques (e.g. mass spectrometry; high-performance liquid chromatography) have enabled scientists to identify drug residues in liquids, even at very low concentrations. The method involves analysing wastewater to measure levels of illicit drug by-products excreted in urine. These levels are then used to calculate the consumption levels of specific substances in a particular community.
‘While work in this area is still in its infancy and considerable uncertainties remain, the approach appears increasingly promising’, said EMCDDA Director Wolfgang Götz. ‘It is becoming clear that new developments in our ability to detect drugs and their metabolites in wastewater are likely to have important implications for the approaches we adopt to monitoring drug consumption trends over time’.
The report explores how the approach can be applied to estimating drug use in the community, looking at: how drugs are broken down in the body; how drugs are transported in urban drainage systems; and how maps and geographical information systems (GIS) can be used to understand the complex inter-relationships between humans, disease and the environment. Experts also look at the ethical and legal aspects of wastewater sampling and how data from wastewater studies can complement drug use estimates gained from more conventional approaches.
‘Illicit drug use is, by its nature, a covert and hidden activity, and traditional survey methods (such as population or household surveys) can be inefficient and sometimes ineffective ways of estimating levels of at least some types of illicit drug use’, states the report. ‘The possibility that a new technique for estimating illicit drug use might be added to the existing repertoire of research methods is, therefore, an exciting prospect’.
Norbert Frost
In this issue...
- In aqua veritas? Illicit drugs in wastewater
- New EU drugs action plan: mobilising European citizens
- HIV among IDUs in Europe: increasing trends in the East
- EU-LAC cities collaborate on drug treatment data collection
- Improving access to treatment
- Concerns expressed over Spice
- Towards the better treatment of addiction
- Best practice portal: selective prevention
- Drug use, a growing challenge for EU road safety
- Creating and consolidating national drug observatories
- Identifying Europe’s information needs
- Legal responses to new psychoactive substances in Europe
- Reitox Academy for the Andean Community
- National reporting: new guidelines for 2009
- Scientific Committee members present vision for next three years
- Management Board adopts 2009 work programme and budget
- Farewell to Pompidou Group chief
Drugnet Europe is also available in downloadable PDF format, for printing or offline browsing.
Drugnet Europe is the EMCDDA's newsletter launched in September 1996. The newsletter provides regular and succint information on the Centre's projects and activities to a broad readership.
Page last updated: Friday, 20 February 2009