ArticleBMC public health2016
Comparison of pharmaceutical, illicit drug, alcohol, nicotine and caffeine levels in wastewater with sale, seizure and consumption data for 8 European cities.
Article in BMC public health, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 42 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
42 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 191 citations in OpenAlex.
- A global systematic review and meta-analysis on illicit drug consumption rate through wastewater-based epidemiology.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2020Pooled it
- Understanding Consumption of Illicit Drugs and New Psychoactive Substances in Australia by Triangulating Drug Checking and Wastewater-Based Epidemiology.Drug testing and analysis · 2026Article
- Towards the institutionalization of wastewater surveillance for public health: results from the EU-WISH mapping survey.European journal of public health · 2026Article
- Understanding the Role of Deconjugation of Phase II Metabolites in Wastewater: Implications for Wastewater-Based Epidemiology.Environmental science & technology · 2026Article
- Comparison of self-reported survey and wastewater-based epidemiology measures of cocaine use on a college campus.PloS one · 2026Article
- Unveiling the global urban virome through wastewater metagenomics.Nature communications · 2025Article
- The effect of WWTP products amendments on Phaseolus vulgaris rhizosphere and its ability to inactivate clarithromycin.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Isoprostanes in wastewater of two Italian cities as a community-level metabolism linked to SARS-CoV-2 RNA and COVID-19 cases.BMC public health · 2025Article
- A Narrative Review of High Throughput Wastewater Sample Processing for Infectious Disease Surveillance: Challenges, Progress, and Future Opportunities.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Review
- Review
- Early-onset alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drug use with age at onset of hypertension: a survival analysis.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2024Article
- Wastewater-based surveillance as a tool for public health action: SARS-CoV-2 and beyond.Clinical microbiology reviews · 2024Review
- Is the reliability of wastewater-based epidemiology affected by season? Comparative analysis with pharmaceuticals prescriptions.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2024Article
- Assessment of sewer connectivity in the United States and its implications for equity in wastewater-based epidemiology.PLOS global public health · 2024Article
- Long-term study on wastewater SARS-CoV-2 surveillance across United Arab Emirates.The Science of the total environment · 2023Article
- Understanding common population markers for SARS-CoV-2 RNA normalization in wastewater - A review.Chemosphere · 2023Review
- Analysis of illicit stimulant use triangulating wastewater, general population survey and web survey data.Nordisk alkohol- & narkotikatidskrift : NAT · 2023Article
- Integrated multiomic wastewater-based epidemiology can elucidate population-level dietary behaviour and inform public health nutrition assessments.Nature food · 2023Article
- Systematic scoping review evaluating the potential of wastewater-based epidemiology for monitoring cardiovascular disease and cancer.The Science of the total environment · 2023Article
- Regional and temporal differences in the relation between SARS-CoV-2 biomarkers in wastewater and estimated infection prevalence - Insights from long-term surveillance.The Science of the total environment · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
21 authors at 9 institutions in 8 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundMonitoring the scale of pharmaceuticals, illicit and licit drugs consumption is important to assess the needs of law enforcement and public health, and provides more information about the different trends within different countries. Community drug use patterns are usually described by national surveys, sales and seizure data. Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) has been shown to be a reliable approach complementing such surveys.
methodThis study aims to compare and correlate the consumption estimates of pharmaceuticals, illicit drugs, alcohol, nicotine and caffeine from wastewater analysis and other sources of information. Wastewater samples were collected in 2015 from 8 different European cities over a one week period, representing a population of approximately 5 million people. Published pharmaceutical sale, illicit drug seizure and alcohol, tobacco and caffeine use data were used for the comparison.
resultsHigh agreement was found between wastewater and other data sources for pharmaceuticals and cocaine, whereas amphetamines, alcohol and caffeine showed a moderate correlation. methamphetamine and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and nicotine did not correlate with other sources of data. Most of the poor correlations were explained as part of the uncertainties related with the use estimates and were improved with other complementary sources of data.
conclusionsThis work confirms the promising future of WBE as a complementary approach to obtain a more accurate picture of substance use situation within different communities. Our findings suggest further improvements to reduce the uncertainties associated with both sources of information in order to make the data more comparable.
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