July 15, 2009
New study uses wastewater to map large-scale patterns of illicit drug use in Oregon
A team of researchers from the University of Washington, McGill University and Oregon State University has mapped patterns of illicit drug use across the state of Oregon using a method of sampling municipal wastewater before it is treated. Results from the study were published this week in Addiction.
The team, using analytical methods advanced at Oregon State, collected single-day samples from 96 municipalities across Oregon and tested the samples for evidence of methamphetamine, cocaine, and ecstasy or MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine).
“This work is the first to demonstrate the use of wastewater samples for spatial analyses, a relatively simple and cost-effective approach to measuring community drug use,” said Banta-Green, UW research scientist at the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute and lead author of the paper.
“Current measures of the true prevalence of drug use are severely limited both by cost and methodological issues. We believe these data have great utility as a population measure of drug use and provide further evidence of the validity of this methodology.”
OSU’s Jennifer Field praised Oregon communities for participating in the research. “Municipalities across the state generously volunteered to help us test our methods by collecting samples more or less simultaneously, providing us with 24-hour composite influent samples from one day: March 4, 2008,” said Field.
Using samples from 96 municipalities, the researchers calculated the presence, measured as index loads, of three stimulant drugs: methamphetamine, ecstasy and benzoylecgonine (BZE, a cocaine metabolite).
The team found that index loads of BZE were significantly higher in urban areas and below the level of detection in some rural areas. Methamphetamine was present in all municipalities, rural and urban. MDMA or ecstasy was at quantifiable levels in less than half of the communities, with a significant trend toward higher index loads in more urban areas.
Researchers said the study validates wastewater drug testing methodology that could serve as a tool for public health officials. Officials could, for example, use the methodology to identify patterns of drug abuse across multiple municipalities over time.
The team said data used for this study are inadequate as a complete measure of drug excretion for a community or entire state. The team looked at a single day, mid-week sample, for instance. Results might be altered depending on the day or time of year the sample was gathered.
“We believe this methodology can dramatically improve measurement of the true level and distribution of a range of illicit drugs,” said Banta-Green. “By measuring a community’s drug index load, public health officials will have information applicable to a much larger proportion of the total population than existing measures can provide.”
Currently, Field and Banta-Green are collaborating on a project funded by the National Institutes of Health to determine the best method for collecting data in order to get a reliable annual estimate of drug excretion for a community.
