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Wastewater-based Epidemiology

A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Science and Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2020) | Viewed by 7773

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
Interests: new biomarkers for WBE; new application of WBE; method uncertainties; COVID-19; pathogens

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) has been developed and applied for more than a decade. The approach, normalising analyte influent concentration to per capita mass loads or consumption using the daily flow and catchment population, provides population-scale information on human activity within catchment boundaries. This information can facilitate assessments of consumption, use, exposure, or release of chemicals among different population. Assessments of spatial or temporal trends, or response(s) to events within catchments can also be conducted.

WBE has been widely applied to monitor the prevalence of illicit drugs around the world including the first national wastewater drug monitoring program in Australia. Other pharmaceuticals and industrial chemicals have also been included to the monitoring suite. In the meantime, WBE is advancing to expand both in terms of specific biomarkers and analytical techniques. Many challenges remains but WBE still could be explored to reach its full potential as a complementary monitoring tool for epidemiological studies in human health including pathogen and health indicator monitoring as well as stress, food and diet markers.

This Special Issue seeks research papers on various aspects of WBE, from the application of the approach in new area with special demographic to explorative studies to advance the science of the field. We encourage the submission of interdisciplinary work and collaborative research on identify new biomarkers for WBE and triangulate WBE data with other data sources. We also encourage the submission of manuscripts that focus on addressing the uncertainties of WBE, namely population estimates, excretion factors of drugs, and stability of markers in the sewer systems. We welcome both original research papers as well as systematic reviews.

Dr. Phong Thai
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • Monitoring substances of abuse
  • Data triangulation
  • Method uncertainties
  • Population size estimates
  • Impact of policies
  • New biomarkers for WBE
  • New application of WBE

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

11 pages, 694 KiB  
Article
Monitoring Consumption of Common Illicit Drugs in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, by Wastewater-Cased Epidemiology
by Peng Du, Xin Liu, Guangcai Zhong, Zilei Zhou, Margaret William Thomes, Choon Weng Lee, Chui Wei Bong, Xuan Zhang, Fanghua Hao, Xiqing Li, Gan Zhang and Phong K. Thai
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17(3), 889; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17030889 - 31 Jan 2020
Cited by 38 | Viewed by 6694
Abstract
Southeast Asian countries including Malaysia play a major role in global drug trade and abuse. Use of amphetamine-type stimulants has increased in the past decade in Malaysia. This study aimed to apply wastewater-based epidemiology for the first time in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to [...] Read more.
Southeast Asian countries including Malaysia play a major role in global drug trade and abuse. Use of amphetamine-type stimulants has increased in the past decade in Malaysia. This study aimed to apply wastewater-based epidemiology for the first time in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to estimate the consumption of common illicit drugs in urban population. Influent wastewater samples were collected from two wastewater treatment plants in Kuala Lumpur in the summer of 2017. Concentrations of twenty-four drug biomarkers were analyzed for estimating drug consumption. Fourteen drug residues were detected with concentrations of up to 1640 ng/L. Among the monitored illicit drugs, 3,4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine (MDMA) or ecstasy had the highest estimated per capita consumptions. Consumption and dose of amphetamine-type stimulants (methamphetamine and MDMA) were both an order of magnitude higher than those of opioids (heroin and codeine, methadone and tramadol). Amphetamine-type stimulants were the most prevalent drugs, replacing opioids in the drug market. The prevalence trend measured by wastewater-based epidemiology data reflected the shift to amphetamine-type stimulants as reported by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Narcotics Cooperation Center. Most of the undetected drug residues were new psychoactive substances (NPSs), suggesting a low prevalence of NPSs in the drug market. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wastewater-based Epidemiology)
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