L’analyse des eaux usées et les drogues : Une étude multivilles 2018
L’OEDT confirme l’avenir prometteur de l’épidémiologie basée sur les eaux usées comme approche complémentaire pour obtenir un tableau plus précis et équilibré de la consommation de drogues au sein de différentes communautés. Pour en savoir plus, en Anglais, veuillez lire les informations ci-dessous.
The findings of the largest European project to date in the emerging science of wastewater analysis are taken up in this ‘Perspective on drugs’. The project in question analysed wastewater in around 60 European cities and towns (hereinafter referred to as ‘cities’) to explore the drugtaking habits of those who live in them. The results provide a valuable snapshot of the drug flow through the cities involved, revealing marked geographical variations.
Wastewater analysis is a rapidly developing scientific discipline with the potential for monitoring real-time data on geographical and temporal trends in illicit drug use. Originally used in the 1990s to monitor the environmental impact of liquid household waste, the method has since been used to estimate illicit drug consumption in different cities (Daughton, 2001; Zuccato et al., 2008; van Nuijs et al., 2011). It involves sampling a source of wastewater, such as a sewage influent to a wastewater treatment plant. This allows scientists to estimate the quantity of drugs consumed by a community by measuring the levels of illicit drugs and their metabolites excreted in urine (Zuccato et al., 2008)
Wastewater testing in European cities
In 2010 a Europe-wide network (Sewage analysis CORe group — Europe (SCORE)) was established with the aim of standardising the approaches used for wastewater analysis and coordinating international studies through the establishment of a common protocol of action (1). The first activity of the SCORE group was a Europe-wide investigation, performed in 2011 in 19 European cities, which allowed the first ever wastewater study of regional differences in illicit drug use in Europe (Thomas et al., 2012). That study also included the first intercalibration exercise for the evaluation of the quality of the analytical data and allowed a comprehensive characterisation of the major uncertainties of the approach (Castiglioni et al., 2014). Following the success of this initial study, comparable studies were undertaken over the following four years, covering 56 cities and 19 countries in Europe in 2017. A standard protocol and a common quality control exercise were used in all locations, which made it possible to directly compare illicit drug loads in Europe over a oneweek period during seven consecutive years. For the 2017 wastewater monitoring campaign, raw 24-hour composite samples were collected during a single week in March. These samples were analysed for the urinary biomarkers (i.e. measurable characteristics) of the parent drug (i.e. primary substance) for amphetamine, methamphetamine and MDMA. In addition, the samples were analysed for the main urinary metabolites (i.e. substances produced when the body breaks drugs down) of cocaine and cannabis, which are benzoylecgonine (BE) and THC-COOH (11-nor-9-carboxydelta9-tetrahydrocannabinol).