New Easier Detection for Drugs in Municipal Wastewater Treatment
Recent media reports have pointed to growing concerns that quantities of pharmaceutical and illicit drugs are finding their way into our waterways. Reports from various areas warn of water life mutations occurring near municipal water discharge as a result of drugs passing through the system. Increased use of some illegal drugs is a growing concern in many communities.
Until now, wastewater testing was generally done after the water left the sewage treatment plant. Now, a team of researchers has developed an automated monitoring method that makes it possible to detect drugs, from cocaine to caffeine and from Paxil to Prozac, before they enter municipal wastewater plants. In effect, it can locate and monitor patterns of drug use in entire communities as they enter treatment facilities.
The research group was lead by Oregon State University chemist Jennifer Field, and she reported her findings recently at the American Chemical Society meeting held in Boston, Mass. “It’s like taking a very diluted urine sample collected from an entire community,” said Ms. Field.
The presence of pharmaceutical and illicit drugs in municipal wastewater has been known for several years, beginning with groundbreaking studies in Europe that tracked the presence of drugs in sewage and river water. Ms. Field pointed out that she and her colleagues have developed new methods of chemical analysis so that detection is possible from very small samples. Such testing can be done automatically over a 24-hour period from wastewater as it enters a treatment plant.
This data can be used in several ways including providing information regarding community drug use. “This method is most useful for drug surveillance at the community level,” said Ms. Field. “Wastewater analysis is a more powerful indicator at the community level.”
For instance, in their preliminary studies, researchers found patterns of drug use with higher wastewater concentrations of recreational drugs (such as cocaine) on weekends. They found no change in concentrations of either prescription drugs or methamphetamines in their samples, suggesting more consistent use.
This method of testing can have benefits for large cities and particularly smaller towns. Typically, drug use and abuse studies focus on the larger demographic areas. With both the ease and cost effectiveness of these new methods, data can be collected from smaller residential areas as well.
Researchers hope that the state of Oregon will benefit from their work. “The methods allow us to better understand the geographic differences in the abuse of drugs (particularly methamphetamine) with the state of Oregon,” said Daniel Sudakin, an Oregon State toxicologist who was one of the researchers. “We hope that these tools may be useful in identifying communities at risk and developing preventative interventions to reduce the adverse impact of methamphetamine throughout the state.”
And, hopefully, this information will help water treatment specialists to reduce the flow of drugs flowing through their plants that are now ending up in our lakes and rivers.