Wastewater epidemiology is focused on studying population-level drug use by analyzing samples obtained from wastewater systems. Drugs of public health and environmental importance include legal (e.g. antibiotics, hormones) and illegal (e.g. cocaine, heroin) substances. Few studies have examined the spatial and temporal variability in illicit drug use during major sporting events—a time when substance use is prevalent.  This study characterized the spatial and temporal variability in illicit drug consumption during a college football game.  We sampled wastewater from three locations at the University of Florida Ben Hill Griffin Stadium every 30 minutes during a college game day (Florida vs. Kentucky, September 2018). Six milliliters of each sample were analyzed using solid phase extraction and liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS). We screened for 58 metabolites that represent a variety of legal and illicit drugs. Statistical analysis accounted for missing values using a uniform distribution with bounds between 0 and the lower limit of detection. Linear regression included covariates such as location to obtain continuous concentration curves. Water flow rates will be used to estimate community-level drug patterns of consumption using mass load calculations.  Thirty-seven waste water samples were analyzed by LS-MS. Of the 58 compounds analyzed for, 24 were observed in at least one sample. The presence of 24 drugs of abuse were found in 10 samples from site one, 11 samples from site two, and 9 samples from site 3 (30 total samples). As expected, there was variability in the time trends and concentrations. The compounds with the highest concentrations were pseudoephedrine and tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (THCA), which tended to increase and decrease, respectively, during the game. Concentrations of amphetamine, benzoylecgonine (a metabolite of cocaine) and noroxycodone tended to peak during the midpoint of data collection (e.g. halftime). Benzoylecgonine was the most consistently and commonly found drug from the analysis.  Our results demonstrate spatial and temporal patterns in illicit drugs detected in wastewater samples collected during a college football game.

Wastewater pharmacometabolomics: Feasibility study using liquid-chromatography mass spectrometry to estimate illicit drug consumption during college football games

2019 Fall National Meeting

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