Open AccessForensic Analysis of Illicit Drugs and Novel Psychoactive Substances in Wastewater: A review of Toxicological, Chemical and Microbiological Aspects
Author(s) -
Eduardo Geraldo de Campos,
Elaine De Martinis,
Bruno De Martinis
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
brjac brazilian journal of analytical chemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.131
H-Index - 6
eISSN - 2179-3433
pISSN - 2179-3425
DOI - 10.30744/brjac.2179-3425.rv-19-2021
Subject(s) - wastewater , context (archaeology) , population , sewage , forensic toxicology , drugs of abuse , drug , environmental science , waste management , environmental health , medicine , pharmacology , engineering , chemistry , environmental engineering , biology , chromatography , paleontology
Wastewater-based epidemiology has emerged as a new analytical strategy for monitoring licit and illicit drug use in a population by measuring the levels of biomarkers in wastewater. The main concept of this approach is that chemical substances ingested by the population will be excreted in urine and feces, which will be discarded into the sewage network and may accumulate at the wastewater treatment plant. Several licit and illicit substances such as ethanol, nicotine, cocaine, amphetamine, methamphetamine and morphine have been investigated and reported in wastewater in worldwide. In recent years, this approach has also been explored for environmental monitoring of novel psychoactive substances (NPS) as well, since analyses of wastewater represent a fast and cost-effective way to evaluate collectively drug intake in a given population served by a sewage network. In this paper, a comprehensive and interdisciplinary review of the forensic, toxicological, chemical and microbiological aspects of the analysis of “traditional” drugs of abuse and NPS in wastewater and examples of applications reported in recently published papers is provided. Wastewater analysis is a very promising strategy in monitoring drug use in the context of Forensic Chemistry and Toxicology, and has been implemented by many researchers in the analysis of drugs of abuse, as supported by many recent literature reports.