New psychoactive substances in several European populations assessed by wastewater-based epidemiology

Sara Castiglioni; Noelia Salgueiro-González; Lubertus Bijlsma; Alberto Celma; Emma Gracia-Lor; Mihail Simion Beldean-Galea; Tomáš Mackuľak; Erik Emke; Ester Heath; Barbara Kasprzyk-Hordern; Andjelka Petkovic; Francesco Poretti; Jeliaz Rangelov; Miguel M Santos; Maja Sremački; Katarzyna Styszko; Felix Hernández; Ettore Zuccato

doi:10.1016/j.watres.2021.116983

New psychoactive substances in several European populations assessed by wastewater-based epidemiology

Water Res. 2021 May 1:195:116983. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2021.116983. Epub 2021 Feb 27.

Authors

Sara Castiglioni¹, Noelia Salgueiro-González², Lubertus Bijlsma³, Alberto Celma³, Emma Gracia-Lor⁴, Mihail Simion Beldean-Galea⁵, Tomáš Mackuľak⁶, Erik Emke⁷, Ester Heath⁸, Barbara Kasprzyk-Hordern⁹, Andjelka Petkovic¹⁰, Francesco Poretti¹¹, Jeliaz Rangelov¹², Miguel M Santos¹³, Maja Sremački¹⁴, Katarzyna Styszko¹⁵, Felix Hernández³, Ettore Zuccato²

Affiliations

¹ Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri IRCCS, Department of Environmental Sciences, Via Mario Negri 2, 20156, Milan, Italy. Electronic address: sara.castiglioni@marionegri.it.
² Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri IRCCS, Department of Environmental Sciences, Via Mario Negri 2, 20156, Milan, Italy.
³ Environmental and Public Health Analytical Chemistry, Research Institute for Pesticides and Water, University Jaume I, 12071 Castellón, Spain.
⁴ Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri IRCCS, Department of Environmental Sciences, Via Mario Negri 2, 20156, Milan, Italy; Department of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, Complutense University of Madrid, 28040, Madrid, Spain.
⁵ Babes-Bolyai University, Faculty of Environmental Science and Engineering, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
⁶ Institute of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Chemical and Food Technology, Slovak University of Technology, Radlinského 2101/9, 812 37 Bratislava, Slovakia.
⁷ KWR Water Research Institute, P.O. Box 1072, 3430 BB, Nieuwegein, The Netherlands.
⁸ Department of Environmental Sciences, Jožef Stefan Institute, Jamova cesta 39, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
⁹ Department of Chemistry, University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, United Kingdom.
¹⁰ Jaroslav Cerni Water Institute, 11226 Belgrade, Serbia.
¹¹ Consorzio Depurazione Acque Lugano e Dintorni, Via Molinazzo 1, 6934 Bioggio, Switzerland.
¹² Sofiyska Voda AD part of Veolia, Sofia, Bulgaria.
¹³ CIMAR/CIIMAR - LA, Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research, Group of Endocrine Disruptors and Emerging Contaminants, FCUP, Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre, 4169-007 Porto, Portugal.
¹⁴ University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Technical Sciences, Department of Environmental Engineering and Occupational Safety and Health, Novi Sad, Serbia.
¹⁵ AGH University of Science and Technology, Department of Coal Chemistry and Environmental Sciences, Al. Mickiewicza 30, Krakow, Poland.

PMID: 33721674
DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2021.116983

Abstract

Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) can be a useful tool to face some of the existing challenges in monitoring the use of new psychoactive substances (NPS), as it can provide objective and updated information. This Europe-wide study aimed to verify the suitability of WBE for investigating the use of NPS. Selected NPS were monitored in urban wastewater by high performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS). The main classical illicit drugs were monitored in the same samples to compare their levels with those of NPS. Raw composite wastewater samples were collected in 2016 and 2017 in 14 European countries (22 cities) following best practice sampling protocols. Methcathinone was most frequent (>65% of the cities), followed by mephedrone (>25% of the cities), and only mephedrone, methcathinone and methylone were found in both years. This study depicts the use of NPS in Europe, confirming that it is much lower than the use of classical drugs. WBE proved able to assess the qualitative and quantitative spatial and temporal profiles of NPS use. The results show the changeable nature of the NPS market and the importance of large WBE monitoring campaigns for selected priority NPS. WBE is valuable for complementing epidemiological studies to follow rapidly changing profiles of use of drugs.

Keywords: Europe; Urban wastewater; monitoring; new psychoactive substances; spatial and temporal trends; use profiles.

MeSH terms

Cities
Europe
Tandem Mass Spectrometry
Wastewater / analysis
Wastewater-Based Epidemiological Monitoring*
Water Pollutants, Chemical* / analysis

Substances

Waste Water
Water Pollutants, Chemical