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Wastewater Analysis for Community-Wide Drugs Use Assessment

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New Psychoactive Substances

Part of the book series: Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology ((HEP,volume 252))

Abstract

Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) complements existing epidemiology-based estimation techniques and provides objective, evidence-based estimates of illicit drug use. After consumption, biomarkers – drugs and their metabolites – excreted to toilets and flushed into urban sewer networks can be measured in raw wastewater samples. The quantified loads can serve as an estimate for the collective consumption of all people contributing to the wastewater sample. This transdisciplinary approach, further explained in this chapter, has developed, matured and is now established for monitoring substances such as cocaine and amphetamine-type stimulants. Research currently underway is refining WBE to new applications including new psychoactive substances (NPS).

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Author notes

  1. Christoph Ort and Lubertus Bijlsma contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Dübendorf, Switzerland

    Christoph Ort

  2. Research Institute for Pesticides and Water, University Jaume I, Castellón, Spain

    Lubertus Bijlsma & Félix Hernández

  3. Department of Environmental Health Sciences, IRCCS, Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche “Mario Negri”, Milan, Italy

    Sara Castiglioni

  4. Toxicological Center, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium

    Adrian Covaci & Alexander L. N. van Nuijs

  5. KWR, Watercycle Research Institute, Nieuwegein, The Netherlands

    Pim de Voogt & Erik Emke

  6. IBED, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Pim de Voogt

  7. NIVA, Norwegian Institute for Water Research, Oslo, Norway

    Malcolm Reid & Kevin V. Thomas

  8. Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Kevin V. Thomas

  9. Department of Chemistry, University of Bath, Bath, UK

    Barbara Kasprzyk-Hordern

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  1. Christoph Ort
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  2. Lubertus Bijlsma
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  4. Adrian Covaci
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  5. Pim de Voogt
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  6. Erik Emke
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  7. Félix Hernández
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  8. Malcolm Reid
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  9. Alexander L. N. van Nuijs
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  10. Kevin V. Thomas
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  11. Barbara Kasprzyk-Hordern
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Christoph Ort , Lubertus Bijlsma or Barbara Kasprzyk-Hordern .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Experimental and Clinical Toxicology, Institute of Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, Saarland University, Homburg (Saar), Germany

    Hans H. Maurer

  2. School of Pharmacy & Biomolecular Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK

    Simon D. Brandt

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Ort, C. et al. (2018). Wastewater Analysis for Community-Wide Drugs Use Assessment. In: Maurer, H., Brandt, S. (eds) New Psychoactive Substances . Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology, vol 252. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/164_2018_111

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