Kappe Environmental Engineering Seminar …

                Kappe Environmental Engineering Seminar

                            Friday September 5, 2008
                               11:15am ­ 12:05pm
                                258 Willard Bldg


                           Jennifer Field
                       Oregon State University
          Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering


 Illicit Drugs and Biomarkers in Raw Wastewater: a New Tool
                     for Drug Epidemiology

Worldwide interest in the use of illicit drug concentrations in municipal influent
wastewater as an alternative means for estimating community drug use is increasing. The
approach has the potential for decreasing bias relative to more conventional methods of
drug surveillance such as surveys based on self reporting. Wastewater analyses can also
provide real-time information on drug use compared to conventional sources of drug
use/abuse data such as poison control center calls, emergency room admissions, and
mortality data that often are available only after substantial time delays (months to years).
With locations in small, rural municipalities, wastewater data will increase our
understanding of the spatial patterns of drug use. The data and its advantages are of
potential value to the public health, law enforcement, and drug intervention and treatment
communities. To date, the focus is on feasibility demonstrations that center around the
analytical detection of drug residues. Fewer studies embrace the complexities of
sampling and the attendant uncertainties around estimates of load or directly address the
assumptions inherent in the calculations of loads. Discussion will also include the
optimization of the sampling approach, storage and transport of samples, and the
uncertainty associated with the resulting estimates of community drug use. Temporal
trends within communities and between communities will be discussed. The advantages
and limitations of using human urinary biomarkers as a potentially dynamic indicator of
population will be discussed for use within a single municipality and between
municipalities.