Tabloid journalists-have long Known That You can discover dirty secrets by going through people's garbage. Now, Researchers-have done something similar in the name of science, we Albeit grander-scale-and smellier. They-have Analyzed the sewage of 19 European cities to find out how much of some illicit drugs people de ces cities consume.
"The technology needs further Top work and validation, aim this paper That it is shows a feasible approach for Estimating drug use was large scale," says Fritz Sörgel, head of the Institute for Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Research in Nuremberg , Germany, Who Was not Involved in the work.
To put figures on illicit drug use, Researchers Routinely use surveys, Supplemented by data from Police and customs. Purpose They Have beens pushing for more accurate and objective methods to estimate the water equivalent Consumed. One possibility is to sample the sewage of a city and look for chemical traces of the drugs or metabolites created Themselves When a drug passes through the human body. "The surveys tell you what people take, but not how much, not how big the market is," says Kevin Thomas, a toxicologist at the Norwegian Institute for Water Research in Oslo and one of the authors of the new paper. "Sewage Tells You That."
During one week in March 2011, Thomas and colleagues file Managed daily samples Representing 24 hours of sewage flow from 21 sewage treatment plants in 19 cities across Europe-from Antwerp to Zagreb. The samples Were Analyzed for traces of five different drugs by local labs selon a fixed protocol.
Cannabis consumption Appeared to be similar Throughout Europe-ALTHOUGH the Researchers Did not test for it in cities all-purpose There Were striking regional differences in the use of --other drugs. Cocaine use per capita Was Highest in Belgium and --other parts of west and central Europe, aim lower in the north and the east. Ecstasy use aussi Was Highest in the Belgian city of Antwerp, London, and cities in the Netherlands. More residues of Both drugs Could Be found During the weekend. Meanwhile, methamphetamine levels per capita Were Highest in Scandinavian cities and Budweis in the Czech Republic. "This is really a snapshot of the drug flow through thesis European cities in March 2011," says Thomas.
Some of the peaks May be due to drug producing Rather than consumption, HOWEVER, Thomas sureties. For instance, sewage from cities in the Netherlands and Antwerp in Belgium Showed high levels of amphetamines, drank previous surveys suggest the use of drugs is Actually Those two to three times lower there than in the rest of Europe. Some of the substances May get into the sewer system from illicit drug producing labs qui cluster in the area. And a spike in the ecstasy load in Utrecht, the Netherlands, might be due to a drug Bust That coincided with the testing. "We are going with the theory That They tried to get rid of the evidence by shoving it down the toilet," says Thomas.
In the study, published in Science of the Total Environment , the Researchers estimate That overall, around 355 kilograms of cocaine Was used in Europe every day During the week of the study. "Purpose That Number is just a rough estimate, since we extrapolated from cities to whole countries," says Thomas.
Sörgel, a pharmacologist, guarantees there is more uncertainty in the numbers Because much is still unclear about drug metabolism in the body. The authors ASSUMED That is average, 38% of a cocaine dose is Excreted. "How good value really is That still needs to be shown," says Sörgel.
Meanwhile, Thomas and colleagues-have started a follow-up study That will include at least one U.S. city. Samples already-have-been and file Managed Thomas hopes to present the data at a conference in Austria in May 2013. The study will Provide the first Direct comparison of what is going down the drain in the United States and Europe.
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