Castiglioni Sara, Borsotti Andrea, Riva Francesco, Zuccato Ettore
Department of Environmental Health Sciences, IRCCS Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche 'Mario Negri', Milan, Italy.
Drug Alcohol Rev. 2016 Mar;35(2):128-32. doi: 10.1111/dar.12233. Epub 2014 Dec 29.
Wastewater analysis is a new approach developed to estimate illicit drug (ID) consumption in large communities, such as a city. We tested the ability of this approach to detect differences in consumption in different districts of a city.
Consumption of cocaine, heroin, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) (cannabis active principle), amphetamine, methamphetamine and ecstasy was estimated by analysis of selected drug excretion residues in composite 24 h samples of untreated urban wastewater by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Samples were collected from the inlet of the three main Milan wastewater treatment plants (WWTP), each serving a district of the city (west, center and east). In each WWTP, samples were taken daily for seven consecutive days in November 2010 and March 2011.
We observed significant differences of ID consumption (expressed as mg/day/1000 inhabitants) among districts: consumption of some ID was significantly higher in the eastern district (P < 0.01 for THC, P < 0.001 for cocaine and P < 0.0001 for heroin by one-way analysis of variance), while consumption of methamphetamine and amphetamine was higher in the central area (P < 0.0001). Overall, from 2010 to 2011, ID consumption decreased in all the districts, in line with a recent population survey showing decreases from 25 to 55% in the annual prevalence of ID users in Italy.
This approach may help to detect ID consumption in different districts of a city and may be useful for planning interventions aimed at specific city areas and substances.
废水分析是一种新开发的方法，用于估计大城市（如一个城市）中非法药物（ID）的消费量。我们测试了这种方法检测城市不同区域消费量差异的能力。
通过液相色谱-串联质谱法分析未经处理的城市废水24小时混合样本中选定药物的排泄残留物，来估计可卡因、海洛因、四氢大麻酚（THC）（大麻活性成分）、苯丙胺、甲基苯丙胺和摇头丸的消费量。样本从米兰三个主要污水处理厂（WWTP）的进水口采集，每个污水处理厂服务于城市的一个区域（西部、中部和东部）。在每个污水处理厂，于2010年11月和2011年3月连续七天每天采集样本。
我们观察到不同区域间ID消费量（以毫克/天/1000居民表示）存在显著差异：东部区域某些ID的消费量显著更高（通过单因素方差分析，THC的P < 0.01，可卡因为P < 0.001，海洛因为P < 0.0001），而甲基苯丙胺和苯丙胺的消费量在中部地区更高（P < 0.0001）。总体而言，从2010年到2011年，所有区域的ID消费量均下降，这与最近一项人口调查结果一致，该调查显示意大利ID使用者的年患病率下降了25%至55%。
这种方法可能有助于检测城市不同区域的ID消费量，并且可能有助于规划针对特定城市区域和物质的干预措施。
