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Wastewater Provides Clues to Community Drug Abuse
By Emma Downs, NEIWPCC/UMass Amherst
For researchers studying levels of drug abuse in a community, it would be ideal to obtain a urine sample from every resident. It would also be prohibitively expensive and time consuming, not to mention a violation of privacy. There is another way. It turns out obtaining a collective urine sample can be as simple as going to the local wastewater treatment plant. Researchers from Oregon State University have developed an automated monitoring system to estimate drug abuse in communities by analyzing untreated wastewater. They believe this system could provide a tool to help officials measure patterns of drug abuse in communities of all sizes.
Researchers currently determine drug use in an area through analysis of population surveys integrated with crime statistics, medical records, and drug seizure rates. While this provides a general picture of drug abuse, estimates of consumption rates and drug use prevalence may be inaccurate as much of the information is obtained from the consumers. Further, given the time involved in the process, it is difficult to quickly update results or compare the data for different communities.
The researchers at Oregon State developed a new technique. They tested wastewater from 10 midsize municipalities for the byproducts of drug metabolism of various substances such as cocaine, amphetamines, caffeine, and even cotinine, a byproduct of nicotine excreted by smokers. Combining this data with what they knew about the volume of wastewater flow, the concentrations of the individual byproducts, and population, they calculated the community load of each drug. The method can be used in communities of various sizes to get a picture of drug use on a smaller scale because it is an automated system that relies on small samples from municipal treatment plants.
Though it is difficult to translate this data into actual numbers of users due to such variables as method of intake, dose, and excretion rates, the information from these surveys can help determine what communities are most at risk. The Oregon State scientists also found temporal trends in drug use. For example, use of recreational drugs such as cocaine increased on the weekends while use of methamphetamines remained constant. This type of information can be helpful in developing intervention and prevention programs and in centering them on the areas that are most in need.