Home > Monitoring the use of novel psychoactive substances in Australia by wastewater-based epidemiology.

Jaunay, Emma L and Bade, Richard and Paxton, Kara R and Nadarajan, Dhayaalini and Barry, Daniel C and Zhai, Yuze and Tscharke, Benjamin J and O'Brien, Jake W and Mueller, Jochen and White, Jason M and Simpson, Bradley S and Gerber, Cobus (2024) Monitoring the use of novel psychoactive substances in Australia by wastewater-based epidemiology. The Science of the Total Environment, 919, 170473. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.170473.

External website: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/...

Users of novel psychoactive substances (NPS) are at risk, due to limited information about the toxicity and unpredictable effects of these compounds. Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) has been used as a tool to provide insight into NPS use at the population level. To understand the preferences and trends of NPS use in Australia, this study involved liquid chromatography mass spectrometry analysis of wastewater collected from Australian states and territories from February 2022 to February 2023. In total, 59 different NPS were included across two complementary analytical methods and covered up to 57 wastewater catchments over the study. The NPS detected in wastewater were 25-B-NBOMe, buphedrone, 1-benzylpiperazine (BZP), 3-chloromethcathinone, N,N-dimethylpentylone (N,N-DMP), N-ethylheptedrone, N-ethylpentylone, eutylone, 4F-phenibut, 2-fluoro deschloroketamine, hydroxetamine, mephedrone, methoxetamine, methylone, mitragynine, pentylone, phenibut, para-methoxyamphetamine (PMA), alpha-pyrrolidinovalerophenone (α-PVP) and valeryl fentanyl. The detection frequency for these NPS ranged from 3 % to 100 % of the sites analysed. A noticeable decreasing trend in eutylone detection frequency and mass loads was observed whilst simultaneously N,N-DMP and pentylone increased over the study period. The emergence of some NPS in wastewater pre-dates other sources of monitoring and provides further evidence that WBE can be used as an additional early warning system for alerting potential NPS use.


Item Type
Article
Publication Type
International, Open Access, Article
Drug Type
New psychoactive substance
Intervention Type
Screening / Assessment
Date
1 April 2024
Identification #
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.170473
Publisher
Elsevier
Volume
919
EndNote

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