Assessment of illicit drug and alcohol use in the city of Barcelona

through a wastewater-based epidemiology approach

Ester Lpez Garca1, Cristina Postigo1, Nicola Mastroianni1, Damia Barcel1,2 and Miren
Lpez de Alda1
1
Water and Soil Quality Research Group, Department of Environmental Chemistry, Institute of Environmental
Assessment and Water Research (IDAEA-CSIC), Jordi Girona 18-26, 08034 Barcelona, Spain
2
Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA), Parc Cientfic i Tecnolgic de la Universitat de Girona, Edifici
H2O, Emili Grahit 101, 17003 Girona, Spain

E-mail contact: cprqam@cid.csic.es

Wastewater has revealed as a source of information on lifestyle and human activities. The organic
chemicals in it reflect the food that people eat, the materials they use and even the drugs they
consume. Thus, the concentrations of a specific drug or a stable drug metabolite in wastewater can
be used to back-calculate the use of that drug in the population served by the wastewater
treatment plant (WWTP). This approach is known as wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE), and
it is an accepted tool to investigate trends and changes in drug abuse in a specific location.
A WBE approach was used to investigate illicit drug and alcohol consumption in the city of
Barcelona. Annual and weekly use trends were evaluated by monitoring drug use biomarkers at
the inlet of one of the main WWTPs of the city every day during one week between 2011 (2013 in
the case of alcohol) and 2015. Biomarker concentrations were measured by means of liquid
chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). To back-calculate drug use,
daily average concentrations (from 24-h integrated wastewater samples) were normalized by the
daily average water flow at the inlet of the WWTP, the people served by the WWTP (annual
municipal census), and a refined correction factor that takes into account the average excretion
rate of the biomarker and the molar ratio between the biomarker and the drug.
In the light of the results, and in agreement with official estimates at national level, alcohol (18 mL
(14g)/day/inhabitant >15 years on average) and cannabis (38 g/day/1000 inh. aging 15-64 on
average) were the most consumed drugs followed by cocaine (2.4 g/day/1000 inh. aging 15-64 on
average), amphetamine-like compounds (ephedrine: 1.2 g/day/1000 inh, methamphetamine: 0.28
g/day/1000 inh., MDMA: 0.19 g/day/1000 inh., and amphetamine 0.09 g/day/1000 inh. aging 15-64
on average), and methadone (0.16 g/day/1000 inh. aging 15-64 on average). Drug use increased
over the five years monitored (in agreement with official regional drug use records), except in the
case of heroin and diazepam. Alcohol, cocaine, and MDMA were the only drugs showing a higher
consumption during the weekend compared to the weekdays.

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ES1307 Sewage biomarker analysis for community health assessment