1. Illicit drug consumption estimated by wastewater analysis in different districts of Milan: A case study
- Author
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Sara Castiglioni, Andrea Borsotti, Francesco Riva, and Ettore Zuccato
- Subjects
Consumption (economics) ,Health (social science) ,biology ,business.industry ,Active principle ,Ecstasy ,Environmental engineering ,Medicine (miscellaneous) ,010501 environmental sciences ,biology.organism_classification ,01 natural sciences ,Drug excretion ,Heroin ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Wastewater ,Environmental health ,Medicine ,Illicit drug ,030212 general & internal medicine ,Cannabis ,business ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences ,medicine.drug - Abstract
Introduction and Aims 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. Design and Methods 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 (WWTPs), 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. Results 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
- Published
- 2014
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