Drugs of abuse and their metabolites in the urban rivers of Beijing, China: Occurrence, distribution, and potential environmental risk

Abstract

The occurrence and distribution of five drugs of abuse and their metabolites, namely, methamphetamine (METH), amphetamine (AMP), ketamine (KET), ephedrine (EPH), and hydroxylimine (HY), were investigated in the surface water in urban rivers in Beijing, China. A total of 117 surface water samples were collected from the seven rivers in the Beijing urban areas during four different seasons. Laboratory analyses revealed that EPH and METH were the most predominant drugs, with detection frequency ranging from 94% to 100% and from 65% to 100%, respectively. High levels of METH and KET were observed in the center part of the urban areas, which was likely associated with the drug abuse and the entertainment activities. Seasonal variation of the drug occurrence showed that the highest concentration of drugs of abuse was found during winter, which was likely due to the high consumption, low temperature, and low water flows during the cold weather. By contrast, the concentration and detection frequency of AMP and HY were relatively low. Risk assessment by the risk quotient method indicated that the five drugs of abuse and their metabolites were not likely to exert biological effects on the aquatic ecosystems at current levels in the surface water. However, the potential adverse effect of drugs of abuse and their metabolites on ecosystem functioning and human health should not be neglected.

Occurrence and removal of illicit drugs in different wastewater treatment plants with different treatment techniques

“…Concentrations of MET in the influent were in the range of ≤ LOD-1.24 ng/L and in the effluent for ≤ LOD-0.18 ng/L. In this study, the concentrations of MET were lower than the reported levels in other countries, such as the US (62 ng/L) [9], Croatia (94 ng/L) [12] and Belgium (16 ng/L) [10].…”

“…High METH loads were found in XBQ-1 (20.65 mg/d/1000 inh) and XBQ-3 (18.99 mg/d/1000 inh). These loads were lower than those of wastewater samples (1500-1800 mg/d/1000 inh) in Australia [6] and other cities in China such as Haerbin (181.20 ± 6.50 mg/d/1000 inh) [8], Yinchuan (148.00 ± 145.20 mg/d/1000 inh) [8,12], and the mean METH load in WWTPs from 18 cities in China was 67.80 ± 45.2 mg/d/1000 inh, which was threefold higher than the mean load in this study [8].…”

“…The solid-phase extraction (SPE) method was used to extract illicit drugs in the samples according to our previous work [12,19]. Briefly, wastewater sample was filtered through glass microfiber filters (GF/C Whatman, 0.47 μm), followed by SPE with Oasis MCX cartridges (60 mg, 3 cc) through a vacuum extraction manifold.…”

“…Illicit drugs may cause potential risk to aquatic organism and human health when they enter the natural water Open Access [7,8,12]. The effluents from WWTPs were the principal source of illicit drugs in the surface water [13].…”

Multidiszciplináris eljárás a kábítószerfogyasztás mérésére: a szennyvízelemzésen alapuló drogepidemiológia. Nemzetközi vizsgálatok és adatok

“…A 2015 szeptemberétől 2016 júliusáig négy ütemben, évszakonként egyszer megismételt vizsgálat alapján a mintákban található drogmennyiség 49-92 százalékával az efedrin tekinthető domináns szernek, amely azonban egyszersmind az asztma és a hörghurut kezelésére alkalmazott hagyományos kínai gyógyászati termékek legális hatóanyaga is. A szintén jelentős mennyiségben előforduló metamfetamin és ketamin koncentrációja a belváros körzetében a legnagyobb (Zhang et al [2017]). …”