Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China; Department of Civil Engineering & Applied Mechanics, McGill University, Montreal, Canada; AMEC Environment and Infrastructure, Montreal, Canada.
Toxicological Centre, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium.
Sci Total Environ. 2014 Jul 15;487:710-21. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.01.043. Epub 2014 Jan 31.
Sewage-based epidemiology was applied for the first time to a number of mainland Chinese megacities. The application monitored influents to 9 sewage treatment plants (STPs) to estimate the use of illicit drugs in Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Shanghai. Altogether, 11.4 million inhabitants were covered during September-October 2012. 24-h composite raw sewage samples were collected for 4 consecutive days at each STP. Each collected sample was analyzed for cocaine, benzoylecgonine, ecgonine methylester, methadone, 2-ethylidene-1,5-dimethyl-3,3-diphenylpyrrolidine, 6-monoacetylmorphine, amphetamine, methamphetamine, ecstasy, mephedrone, methylenedioxypyrovalerone, 11-nor-9-carboxy-delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, ketamine, and norketamine. Through the analysis of these chemical residues, the use of amphetamine, cannabis, cocaine, ecstasy, heroin, mephedrone, methadone, methamphetamine, methylenedioxypyrovalerone and ketamine among Chinese urban inhabitants was monitored. The results obtained demonstrated in a quantitative way that the drug use patterns of Chinese are different from their European counterparts. Abuse of methamphetamine and ketamine was particularly noteworthy in China, while consumption of cocaine and ecstasy, the most popular drugs in Europe, was very low among the sampled Chinese inhabitants. Further, the use of most drugs demonstrated a geographical trend, since their use was much higher in the southern cities of Shenzhen and Guangzhou than it was in Beijing and Shanghai. Interestingly, the exclusive, but minor, metabolite of heroin, 6-monoacetylmorphine, was detected only sporadically. This would suggest that the use of heroin among Chinese urban users sampled in the study was low. Further, the patterns of drug use observed during the study are largely consistent with trends reported by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Overall, our study suggests that sewage-based epidemiology can readily be used to monitor the use of illicit drugs in those countries/regions where traditional means to monitor drug use patterns have only yielded limited or information of questionable reliability.
中国大陆的一些特大城市首次应用污水流行病学来监测非法药物的使用情况。研究人员监测了 9 座污水处理厂（STP）的污水进水，以此估算北京、广州、深圳和上海的非法药物使用情况。2012 年 9 月至 10 月期间，共有 1140 万居民被纳入研究。在每个 STP，研究人员连续 4 天采集 24 小时混合污水样本。采集的每个样本均进行可卡因、苯甲酰爱康宁、ecgonine methylester、美沙酮、2-亚乙基-1,5-二甲基-3,3-二苯基吡咯烷、6-单乙酰吗啡、苯丙胺、甲基苯丙胺、摇头丸、氯胺酮、和 3,4-亚甲二氧基甲基苯丙胺的分析。通过这些化学物质残留的分析，监测了中国城市居民中苯丙胺、大麻、可卡因、摇头丸、海洛因、氯胺酮、美沙酮、甲基苯丙胺、3,4-亚甲二氧基甲基苯丙胺和甲基苯丙胺的使用情况。结果表明，中国人的毒品使用模式在定量上与欧洲人不同。中国人特别滥用甲基苯丙胺和氯胺酮，而在欧洲最受欢迎的可卡因和摇头丸的使用量却非常低。此外，大多数药物的使用呈现出地域趋势，因为在深圳和广州这两个南方城市的使用量明显高于北京和上海。有趣的是，海洛因的唯一、次要代谢物 6-单乙酰吗啡仅偶尔被检测到。这表明研究中抽样的中国城市居民中海洛因的使用量较低。此外，研究中观察到的毒品使用模式与联合国毒品和犯罪问题办公室报告的趋势基本一致。总体而言，我们的研究表明，污水流行病学可以很容易地用于监测那些传统监测毒品使用模式的方法仅产生有限或可靠性存在疑问的国家/地区的非法药物使用情况。
