1 research outputs found
Stability of Illicit Drugs as Biomarkers in Sewers: From Lab to Reality
Systematic
sampling and analysis of wastewater samples are increasingly
adopted for estimating drug consumption in communities. An understanding
of the in-sewer transportation and transformation of illicit drug
biomarkers is critical for reducing the uncertainty of this evidence-based
estimation method. In this study, biomarkers stability was investigated
in lab-scale sewer reactors with typical sewer conditions. Kinetic
models using the Bayesian statistics method were developed to simulate
biomarkers transformation in reactors. Furthermore, a field-scale
study was conducted in a real pressure sewer pipe with the systematical
spiking and sampling of biomarkers and flow tracers. In-sewer degradation
was observed for some spiked biomarkers over typical hydraulic retention
time (i.e., a few hours). Results indicated that sewer biofilms prominently
influenced biomarker stability with the retention time in wastewater.
The fits between the measured and the simulated biomarkers transformation
demonstrated that the lab-based model could be extended to estimate
the changes of biomarkers in real sewers. Results also suggested that
the variabilities of biotransformation and analytical accuracy are
the two major contributors to the overall estimation uncertainty.
Built upon many previous lab-scale studies, this study is one critical
step forward in realizing wastewater-based epidemiology by extending
biomarker stability investigations from laboratory reactors to real
sewers