Abstract
The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is the third pole of the world, and information on the consumption of psychoactive substances (PSs) in this area is scarce. In this study, we selected Qinghai Province as the research area, and the per capita consumption and prevalence of PSs were investigated using wastewater-based epidemiology. Samples from 17 wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in 5 major cities in Qinghai Province were monitored, and 11 PSs were detected by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Results showed that the target compounds were detected in all samples, with relatively high concentrations of ephedrine (2.1–4825.3 ng/L) and methamphetamine (1.5–295.7 ng/L). The consumption of methamphetamine in Xining City, Haidong City, and Haixi City was up to 78.4, 16.8, and 21.2 mg/1000 inh/d (the PS consumption per 1000 inhabitants in 1 day), respectively, higher than that in the other two cities, which was the result of the different consumption patterns and its relationship with the economic levels of each city. High consumption of methadone (47.9 mg/1000 inh/day) was found in Xining City, which might be related to the methadone maintenance therapy sites in the city. Methamphetamine was the most prevalent drug, with the prevalence ranging from 0.003 (Guoluo) to 0.197% (Xining), and the prevalence of other PSs was low. The ecological risk assessment of PSs in the effluent of WWTPs showed that methadone exerted a low risk to aquatic organisms in three sites, while other substances posed potential risk or no risk. However, the long-term effect of PSs cannot be ignored.
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Funding
This work was supported by the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research Program (STEP) (Grant No. 2019QZKK0608) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42177382), and Tianshan Talent Program of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
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Haijian Lu: investigation, sampling, experiments, and manuscript writing. Wenxiu Liu: investigation and methodology. Heng Zhang, Jiangtao Yang & Xiaolei Sun: investigation and sampling. Yang Liu: software and study design. Miao Chen: experiments and methodology. Changsheng Guo: methodology, correction and validation. Jian Xu: study design, funding acquisition, conceptualization, review and editing and supervision.
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Lu, H., Liu, W., Zhang, H. et al. Investigation on consumption of psychoactive substances and their ecological risks using wastewater-based epidemiology: a case study on Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 21815–21824 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-23744-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-23744-9