0000000000003467
AUTHOR
Rosa Maria Marcé
The embodiment of wastewater data for the estimation of illicit drug consumption in Spain
Data obtained from wastewater analysis can provide rapid and complementary insights in illicit drug consumption at community level. Within Europe, Spain is an important country of transit of both cocaine and cannabis. The quantity of seized drugs and prevalence of their use rank Spain at the top of Europe. Hence, the implementation of a wastewater monitoring program at national level would help to get better understanding of spatial differences and trends in use of illicit drugs. In this study, a national wastewater campaign was performed for the first time to get more insight on the consumption of illicit drugs within Spain. The 13 Spanish cities monitored cover approximately 6 million inh…
Assessing alcohol consumption through wastewater-based epidemiology: Spain as a case study
Background In this study, an alternative and complementary method to those approaches currently used to estimate alcohol consumption by the population is described. This method, known as wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE), allows back-calculating the alcohol consumption rate in a given population from the concentrations of a selected biomarker measured in wastewater. Methods Composite (24-h) wastewater samples were collected at the inlet of 17 wastewater treatment plants located in 13 Spanish cities for seven consecutive days in 2018. The sampled area covered 12.8% of the Spanish population. Wastewater samples were analyzed to determine the concentration of ethyl sulfate, the biomarker use…
Assessing population exposure to phthalate plasticizers in thirteen Spanish cities through the analysis of wastewater
Phthalates are widely used plasticizers that produce endocrine-disrupting disorders. Quantifying exposure is crucial to perform risk assessments and to develop proper health measures. Herein, a wastewater-based epidemiology approach has been applied to estimate human exposure to six of the mostly used phthalates within the Spanish population. Wastewater samples were collected over four weekdays from seventeen wastewater treatment plants serving thirteen cities and ca. 6 million people (12.8 % of the Spanish population). Phthalate metabolite loads in wastewater were transformed into metabolite concentrations in urine and into daily exposure levels to the parent phthalates. Considering all th…
Validation of a confirmatory method for the determination of macrolides in liver and kidney animal tissues in accordance with the European Union regulation 2002/657/EC
Abstract This study proposes a simple multiresidue liquid chromatography–diode array detector (LC–DAD) method capable of determining seven macrolide antibiotics in samples of liver and kidney animals at concentrations lower than those allowed by current legislation. Samples were prepared by homogenizing the tissue with EDTA–McIlvaine's buffer and extracted with an Oasis HLB cartridge. The consumption of organic solvent during extraction was minimum. The analytes were detected by LC–DAD and also by liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry with electrospray ionization (LC–(ESI)MS). The method was specific, stable and robust enough for the required purposes. The DAD method was validated in acco…
First nation-wide estimation of tobacco consumption in Spain using wastewater-based epidemiology
Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) has become a very useful tool to monitor a population's drug consumption or exposure to environmental and food contaminants. In this work, WBE has been applied to estimate tobacco consumption in seven Spanish regions. To this end, 24 h composite wastewater samples were taken daily for one week in 17 wastewater treatment plants, covering altogether a population of ca. 6 million inhabitants. The samples were treated by enzymatic deconjugation and the wastewater content of two human-specific nicotine metabolites (namely, cotinine and trans-3′-hydroxycotinine) was measured to estimate the daily consumption of nicotine. The population-weighted average nicotine…
Determination of macrolide antibiotics in meat and fish using pressurized liquid extraction and liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry
We developed a method for determining the quantities of seven macrolide antibiotics in meat and fish by using pressurized liquid extraction (PLE) and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry with electrospray ionization (LC-(ESI)MS). The PLE was optimized with regard to solvents, temperature, pressure, extraction time and number of cycles. The optimum conditions were: methanol as the extraction solvent; a temperature of 80 degrees C; a pressure of 1500psi; an extraction time of 15min; 2 cycles; a flush volume of 150% and a purge time of 300s. All recoveries for macrolide antibiotics were over 77% at 200mug/kg, except for erythromycin, which was 58%. The repeatability and reproducibility on d…