Clean water – Healthy city. Using of WBE for monitoring of the consumption of illicit drugs in the city Prague

The results of the three years long project named Municipal wastewater as a diagnostic medium of the capital city of Prague are presented. The post informs about regular, almost two-year long monitoring of municipal wastewater at selected sampling points of the Prague sewerage network. In addition to selected illicit drugs and some pharmaceuticals (e.g. methamphetamine, MDMA, THC, cocaine, fentanyl), nicotine and its metabolites and the ethanol metabolite ethyl sulphate were monitored in municipal wastewater. 24-hour composite samples each fourth day (the first year) or eighth day (the second year) were collected. There were obvious differences in consumption of individual drugs in different parts of the city. For the purposes of the project, analytical methods standardly used in the laboratory for the determination of monitored substances were extended. The project included a Socio-economic study of spatial distribution of the population and identification of risk areas in terms of population lifestyle.