Evaluation of the performance of single-walled carbon nanohorns in capillary electrophoresis

II Encuentro sobre nanociencia y nanotecnología de investigadores y tecnólogos de la Universidad de Córdoba. NANOUC

ESAR-Net: a collaborative effort to expand the application of wastewater epidemiology in Spain

Resumen del trabajo presentado en el SETAC Europe 30th Annual Meeting, celebrado en modalidad virtual del 3 al 7 de mayo de 2020.Data obtained from wastewater analysis can provide rapid and complementary insights in illict drug consumption at community level. Drug use has been assessed through wastewater analysis at national level in, for example, Australia, Belgium, Finland and South Korea and has also provided annually a one week snapshot of illicit drug volumes consumed in European cities (http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/topics/ pods/waste-water-analysis). However, a wastewater monitoring program did not exist in Spain, but leading experts have formed a network (https://www.esarnet.es/) to promote wastewater-based epidemiology at national level and communicate their findings to authorities and policymakers. Within Europe, Spain is an important country of transit of both cocaine and cannabis, due to its cultural, linguistic and colonial ties to Latin America and its proximity to Morocco. The quantity of seized cocaine and cannabis and prevalence of use, locates Spain at the top of Europe. In this work, a national wastewater campaign has been performed to get more insight on the consumption of illicit drugs and NPS within Spain for the first time. Wastewater results from 14 Spanish cities were compared with previously reported data and other national indicators. The cities, located in 7 of the 17 autonomous communities, cover approximately 6 million inhabitants (12.8 of the Spanish population). Untreated wastewater samples were analyzed for urinary biomarkers of amphetamine, methamphetamine, MDMA, cocaine and cannabis. In addition to these conventional drugs, weekend samples were monitored for several new psychoactive substances (NPS) (i.e. phenethylamines and cathinones). The selected NPS are known as possible replacement of these conventional drugs or among those previously reported. Finally, enantiomeric profiling of amphetamine was performed for one city in order to assure the results were due to consumption and not illegal dumping of production residues. This demonstrates another application of wastewater-based epidemiology, which allows to identify the originof drugs in wastewater.This work has been supported by the Spanish State Research Agency (Agencia Estatal de Investigación, AEI) through the “Redes de Excelencia” programme, ESAR-Net, ref. CTM2016-81935-RED

Assessing alcohol consumption through wastewater-based epidemiology: Spain as a case study

Background In this study, an alternative and complementary method to those approaches currently used to estimate alcohol consumption by the population is described. This method, known as wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE), allows back-calculating the alcohol consumption rate in a given population from the concentrations of a selected biomarker measured in wastewater. Methods Composite (24-h) wastewater samples were collected at the inlet of 17 wastewater treatment plants located in 13 Spanish cities for seven consecutive days in 2018. The sampled area covered 12.8% of the Spanish population. Wastewater samples were analyzed to determine the concentration of ethyl sulfate, the biomarker used to back-calculate alcohol consumption. Results Alcohol consumption ranged from 4.5 to 46 mL/day/inhabitant. Differences in consumption were statistically significant among the investigated cities and between weekdays and weekends. WBE-derived estimates of alcohol consumption were comparable to those reported by its corresponding region in the Spanish National Health Survey in most cases. At the national level, comparable results were obtained between the WBE-derived annual consumption rate (5.7 ± 1.2 L ethanol per capita (aged 15+)) and that reported by the National Health Survey (4.7 L ethanol per capita (aged 15+)). Conclusions This is the largest WBE study carried out to date in Spain to estimate alcohol consumption rates. It confirms that this approach is useful for establishing spatial and temporal patterns of alcohol consumption, which could contribute to the development of health care management plans and policies. Contrary to established methods, it allows obtaining information in a fast and relatively economical wayThis work has been supported by the Spanish State Research Agency (AEI) (This work has been supported by the Spanish State Research Agency , CTM2017-84763-C3-1-R, CTM2017-84763-C3-3-R and CTM2017-84763-C3-2-R), Generalitat de Catalunya (expedient number SA-2018-780 and Consolidated Research Group 2017 SGR 01404-Water and Soil Quality Unit), and Galician Council of Culture, Education and Universities (ED481D 2017/003 and EM2014/004). Several of these projects are cofounded by the European Regional Development FundS

Assessing population exposure to phthalate plasticizers in thirteen Spanish cities through the analysis of wastewater

Phthalates are widely used plasticizers that produce endocrine-disrupting disorders. Quantifying exposure is crucial to perform risk assessments and to develop proper health measures. Herein, a wastewater-based epidemiology approach has been applied to estimate human exposure to six of the mostly used phthalates within the Spanish population. Wastewater samples were collected over four weekdays from seventeen wastewater treatment plants serving thirteen cities and ca. 6 million people (12.8 % of the Spanish population). Phthalate metabolite loads in wastewater were transformed into metabolite concentrations in urine and into daily exposure levels to the parent phthalates. Considering all the sampled sites, population-weighted overall means of the estimated concentrations in urine varied between 0.7 ng/mL and 520 ng/mL. Very high levels, compared to human biomonitoring data, were estimated for monomethyl phthalate, metabolite of dimethyl phthalate. This, together with literature data pointing to other sources of this metabolite in sewage led to its exclusion for exposure assessments. For the remaining metabolites, estimated concentrations were closer to those found in urine. Their 4-days average exposure levels ranged from 2 to 1347 μg/(day∙inh), exceeding in some sites the daily exposure thresholds set for di-i-butyl phthalate and di-n-buthyl phthalate by the European Food Safety Authority.Financial support. This study was supported by MCIU/AEI (projects CTM2016-81935-REDT, CTM2017-84763-C3-1-R, CTM2017-84763-C3-2-R, CTM2017-84763-C3-3-R, and CEX2018-000794-S), Galician Council of Culture, Education and Universities (ED481D 2017/003 and ED431C2017/36), Generalitat Valenciana (projects Prometeo/2018/155 and Prometeo/2019/040) and Universitat Jaume I (project UJI-B2018-55). Several of the above mentioned projects are cofunded by FEDER/ERDF. Sampling, sample and data provision and/or analytical support: Viaqua and Concello de Santiago de Compostela, EMAYA (Palma), Jordi Palatsi from Aqualia (Lleida WWTP), Cristian Mesa and Angela Vidal from Aigues de Barcelona (Barcelona WWTP), Iñigo González (Consorcio de Aguas de Bilbao-Bizkaia), the Public Entity of Wastewater Treatment (EPSAR) of the Generalitat Valenciana and especially Fernando Llavador. Luis Aceiton, Enrique Albors, Angel Jiménez, Maria José Tarrega, Sonia Tristante and all the personal of the WWTPs (Aguas de Valencia, Spain), are acknowledged for their help with the sampling. Sociedad de Fomento Agrícola Castellonense (FACSA, Castellon), and especially WWTP operators Santiago Querol and Sara Gargallo are acknowledged for providing wastewater samples from Castellón, as well as Subdirección General de Gestión del Agua, Ayuntamiento de Madrid, for allowing the collection of samples from Madrid centro.Peer reviewe

Análisis de aguas residuales con fines epidemiológicos: aplicaciones a la estimación del consumo de sustancias de abuso y en salud pública en general. Red española ESAR-Net

En este artículo se presenta la metodología de análisis de aguas residuales con fines epidemiológicos (wastewater-based epidemiology, WBE) y su potencial para abordar diversos aspectos relacionados con la salud pública. Esta metodología permite obtener datos a una escala temporal y espacial relativamente pequeña (típicamente datos diarios-semanales sobre un municipio) de hábitos de consumo de sustancias de abuso, ilegales (como la cocaína o el cannabis) o legales (como el alcohol) a través de la determinación de biomarcadores de consumo (el compuesto original no metabolizado o alguno de sus metabolitos) en el agua residual. Aparte de discutir los fundamentos, ventajas y limitaciones de WBE, se comentan los precedentes más relevantes a nivel internacional, y las actividades más destacables en España en este ámbito. Finalmente, se exponen, los objetivos de la Red Española de Análisis de Aguas Residuales con Fines Epidemiológicos (ESAR-Net), una "Red de Excelencia" que agrupa a investigadores españoles con amplia experiencia en el área de WBE, así como las perspectivas de futuro de esta metodología puede tener para mejorar las competencias de la Salud Pública en España

El análisis de aguas residuales con fines epidemiológicos: presente y futuro en España

El análisis de aguas residuales con fines epidemiológicos es actualmente una herramienta fiable y complementaria a las metodologías basadas en indicadores tradicionales para el control de diferentes sustancias entre las que cabe destacar las drogas. Si bien varios países europeos la utilizan como herramienta de trabajo para la monitorización de drogas de abuso, en España su uso se limita principalmente a estudios realizados por diferentes grupos de investigación, tal y como se describe en el caso práctico puesto de ejemplo en el artículo. Sin embargo, el potencial de la metodología ha quedado evidenciado en los estudios científicos llevados a cabo tanto a nivel español como internacional y, aunque son necesarios más estudios para llegar a conocer todo su potencial, se prevé pueda ser incorporada como herramienta de trabajo complementaria a las que habitualmente se utilizan. En este sentido, la Red Española de Análisis de Aguas Residuales (ESAR-Net), creada en 2017 y formada por diferentes grupos de investigación españoles, pretende contribuir al conocimiento y aplicación de esta metodología en España a través de actividades científicas y de divulgación.Este estudio ha sido financiado por la Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) a través del programa Redes de Excelencia (CTM2016-81935-REDT)S

Occurrence and ecological risk assessment of organic UV filters in coastal waters of the Iberian Peninsula

This study aimed to assess the presence of 21 UVFs and metabolites in coastal regions of the Iberian Peninsula, to evaluate their environmental risk, and identify possible influential factors affecting their measured concentrations. Sampling was carried out in spring and summer to assess possible seasonal variations. UVFs were detected in 43 of the 46 sampling sites. Only 5 were found above LOD: BP4, OC, BP3 and metabolites BP1 and BP8. Samples collected in Mar Menor had the greatest variety of compounds per sample and the highest cumulative concentrations. The risk was characterized using Risk Quotients (RQ). BP1 showed a Low environmental Risk in 2 sites while for OC the RQ indicated a Moderate Risk in 22 points. The variables that contribute most to the variation are population density, sampling season, whether it was an open bay or not, and level of urbanization. The presence of WWTPs had a lower influence.We thank the Rey Juan Carlos University Internal Program for the Promotion and Development of Research and Innovation – Bridge Grants 2020; the Spanish Ministry of Education and Professional Development, and the “Salvador Madariaga” Program in Support of Research Stays for Professor and Senior Researchers in Foreign Research Centres. A. Rico acknowledges the funding provided by the Talented Researcher Support Programme – PlanGenT(CIDEGENT/2020/043) of the Generalitat Valenciana. G. Quintana acknowledges the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Project CEX2018-000794-S) for his fellowship.Peer reviewe

Occurrence of pharmaceutical, recreational and psychotropic drug residues in surface water on the northern Antarctic Peninsula region

Human presence in the Antarctic is increasing due to research activities and the rise in tourism. These activities contribute a number of potentially hazardous substances. The aim of this study is to conduct the first characterisation of the pharmaceuticals and recreational drugs present in the northern Antarctic Peninsula region, and to assess the potential environmental risk they pose to the environment. The study consisted of a single sampling of ten water samples from different sources, including streams, ponds, glacier drains, and a wastewater discharge into the sea. Twenty-five selected pharmaceuticals and 21 recreational drugs were analysed. The highest concentrations were found for the analgesics acetaminophen (48.74 μg L−1), diclofenac (15.09 μg L−1) and ibuprofen (10.05 μg L−1), and for the stimulant caffeine (71.33 μg L−1). All these substances were detected in waters that were discharged directly into the ocean without any prior purification processes. The hazard quotient (HQ) values for ibuprofen, diclofenac and acetaminophen were far in excess of 10 at several sampling points. The concentrations of each substance measured and used as measured environmental concentration values for the HQ calculations are based on a one-time sampling. The Toxic Unit values indicate that analgesics and anti-inflammatories are the therapeutic group responsible for the highest toxic burden. This study is the first to analyse a wide range of substances and to determine the presence of pharmaceuticals and psychotropic drugs in the Antarctic Peninsula region. We believe it can serve as a starting point to focus attention on the need for continued environmental monitoring of these substances in the water cycle, especially in protected regions such as the Antarctic. This will determine whether pharmaceuticals and recreational drugs are hazardous to the environment and, if so, can be used as the basis for risk-assessment studies to prioritise the exposure to risk.Research Group and Teaching in Environmental Toxicology and Risk Assessment, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, EspañaInstituto Geológico y Minero de España, EspañaWater and Soil Quality Research Group, Instituto de Diagnóstico Ambiental y Estudios del Agua, EspañaWater and Soil Quality Research Group, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, EspañaInstitut Català de Recerca de l'Aigua, Parc Científic i Tecnològic de la Universitat de Girona, EspañaDepartamento de Geología y Geoquímica, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, EspañaInstituto Nacional de Agua, ArgentinaDepartamento de Biología y Geología, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, EspañaDepartamento de Medicina y Cirugía, Psicología, Medicina Preventiva y Salud Pública y Microbiología e Inmunología Médica, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Españ

Monitorización del consumo de sustancias de abuso legales e ilegales en España a través de las aguas residuales en el marco de la red ESAR-Net

Trabajo presentado en el 4th Congreso Internacional y XLIX Jornadas Nacionales de Socidrogalcohol - VIII Congreso Nacional Patología Bio-Psicosocial, celebrado en Tenerife del 06 al 08 de octubre de 2022