Monitoring Alcohol Consumption in Slovak Cities during the COVID-19 Lockdown by Wastewater-Based Epidemiology

Paula Bimová; Alexandra Tulipánová; Igor Bodík; Miroslav Fehér; Martin Pavelka; Sara Castiglioni; Ettore Zuccato; Noelia Salgueiro-González; Nina Petrovičová; Ján Híveš; Viera Špalková; Tomáš Mackuľak

doi:10.3390/ijerph20032176

Monitoring Alcohol Consumption in Slovak Cities during the COVID-19 Lockdown by Wastewater-Based Epidemiology

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Jan 25;20(3):2176. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20032176.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Inorganic Technology, Faculty of Chemical and Food Technology, Slovak University of Technology, Radlinského 9, 812 37 Bratislava, Slovakia.
² Institute of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Chemical and Food Technology, Slovak University of Technology, Radlinského 9, 812 37 Bratislava, Slovakia.
³ Ministry of Health of the Slovak Republic, Limbová 2, 837 52 Bratislava, Slovakia.
⁴ London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, Keppel Street, London WC1E 7HT, UK.
⁵ Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri IRCCS, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Via Mario Negri 2, 201 56 Milan, Italy.
⁶ Department of Zoology and Fisheries, Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources, Czech University of Life Sciences, Kamýcka 129, 165 00 Praha 6, Czech Republic.

Abstract

The consumption of alcohol in a population is usually monitored through individual questionnaires, forensics, and toxicological data. However, consumption estimates have some biases, mainly due to the accumulation of alcohol stocks. This study's objective was to assess alcohol consumption in Slovakia during the COVID-19 pandemic-related lockdown using wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE). Samples of municipal wastewater were collected from three Slovak cities during the lockdown and during a successive period with lifted restrictions in 2020. The study included about 14% of the Slovak population. The urinary alcohol biomarker, ethyl sulfate (EtS), was analyzed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). EtS concentrations were used to estimate the per capita alcohol consumption in each city. The average alcohol consumption in the selected cities in 2020 ranged between 2.1 and 327 L/day/1000 inhabitants and increased during days with weaker restrictions. WBE can provide timely information on alcohol consumption at the community level, complementing epidemiology-based monitoring techniques (e.g., population surveys and sales statistics).

Keywords: COVID-19; alcohol; liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry; lockdown; urban wastewater.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Alcohol Drinking / epidemiology
COVID-19* / epidemiology
Chromatography, Liquid / methods
Cities
Communicable Disease Control
Ethanol / analysis
Humans
Pandemics
Slovakia / epidemiology
Tandem Mass Spectrometry / methods
Wastewater-Based Epidemiological Monitoring*

Substances

Ethanol
diethyl sulfate

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the Slovak Research and Development Agency, grant numbers APVV-19-0250, APVV-21-0076, APVV-17-0119 and VEGA 1/0343/19. This research was funded by the Operational Program Integrated Infrastructure for the project: “Strategic research in the field of SMART monitoring, treatment and preventive protection against coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2)”, grant number 313011ASS8, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund. The research was funded by Norway through the Norway Grants project: “Innovative carbon-based sorbents as an effective method of wastewater treatment”, grant number 3213200008. The work was supported by the European Regional Development Fund-Project “Centre for the investigation of synthesis and transformation of nutritional substances in the food chain in interaction with potentially harmful substances of anthropogenic origin: comprehensive assessment of soil contamination risks for the quality of agricultural products” (No.CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_019/0000845).