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Stipaničev D, Dragun Z, Repec S, Ivanković D, Barac F, Kiralj Z, Kralj T, Valić D. Dynamics of drug contamination of the river-water in the rural, semirural and urban areas of the Mrežnica River in Croatia during COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2021). ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND POLLUTION RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL 2023; 30:93652-93666. [PMID: 37515617 DOI: 10.1007/s11356-023-28845-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/26/2023] [Accepted: 07/14/2023] [Indexed: 07/31/2023]
Abstract
Increased contamination of aquatic ecosystems with pharmaceuticals could have been expected due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Surface water from three domains (rural, semirural, urban) of the Mrežnica River (Croatia) was screened for 253 pharmaceuticals by SPE-UHPLC-MS/MS. At the beginning of the pandemic, the highest concentration of drugs (excluding veterinary) was detected at urban site (291.4 ng/L), followed by semirural (186.5 ng/L) and rural (141.6 ng/L). With the progression of pandemic, contamination increase was observed at all sites, but it was the most obvious at semirural (approximately 400-700 ng/L). The most pronounced concentration increases were observed for non-opioid analgesics, especially ibuprofen. In September 2021, the first notable occurrence of opioid analgesics was recorded. The most represented group of pharmaceuticals at the start of the pandemic (May 2020) was generally stimulants (caffeine, cotinine). In September 2021, the predominant group was analgesics at all sites (45-84%), whereas stimulants decreased to undetectable levels. The results of this study indicated that the epidemiological measures and medical treatments that were widely imposed/applied caused notable increase of the surface water contamination with drugs of a small river with limited dilution capacity, indirectly pointing to the changes that occurred in the behaviour and habits of the inhabitants of the affected areas.
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Affiliation(s)
- Draženka Stipaničev
- Josip Juraj Strossmayer Water Institute, Central Water Laboratory, Ulica grada Vukovara 220, Zagreb, Croatia
| | - Zrinka Dragun
- Ruđer Bošković Institute, Division for Marine and Environmental Research, Bijenička cesta 54, Zagreb, Croatia.
| | - Siniša Repec
- Josip Juraj Strossmayer Water Institute, Central Water Laboratory, Ulica grada Vukovara 220, Zagreb, Croatia
| | - Dušica Ivanković
- Ruđer Bošković Institute, Division for Marine and Environmental Research, Bijenička cesta 54, Zagreb, Croatia
| | - Fran Barac
- Ruđer Bošković Institute, Division for Marine and Environmental Research, Bijenička cesta 54, Zagreb, Croatia
| | - Zoran Kiralj
- Ruđer Bošković Institute, Division for Marine and Environmental Research, Bijenička cesta 54, Zagreb, Croatia
| | - Tomislav Kralj
- Ruđer Bošković Institute, Division for Marine and Environmental Research, Bijenička cesta 54, Zagreb, Croatia
| | - Damir Valić
- Ruđer Bošković Institute, Division for Marine and Environmental Research, Bijenička cesta 54, Zagreb, Croatia
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Psichoudaki M, Mina T, Savvidou M, Mina C, Michael C, Fatta-Kassinos D. Wastewater-based monitoring of illicit drugs in Cyprus by UPLC-MS/MS: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2023; 854:158747. [PMID: 36108831 PMCID: PMC9467927 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.158747] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/04/2022] [Revised: 09/09/2022] [Accepted: 09/09/2022] [Indexed: 05/14/2023]
Abstract
The outbreak and spread of COVID-19 impacted through various ways the lives of millions of humans globally. In this work, wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) was applied to investigate the effect of the actions taken by the Republic of Cyprus to confine COVID-19 on the use of illicit stimulant drugs. Daily influent samples were collected from the six main wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) of the country i) before lockdown (3-9 April 2019), ii) during lockdown (21-27 April 2020), iii) during the post-lockdown period (14-20 July 2020), and, iv) during each season of the following year (20-26 April 2021, 19-25 July 2021, 11-17 October 2021, 25 December 2021-2 January 2022), and analyzed for amphetamine, methamphetamine, MDMA and cocaine. In most areas, amphetamine and methamphetamine use was not affected during the confinement period, but as availability of the substances decreased with time, a drop in their use was observed when most restriction measures were eased (up to 9- and 22-fold decrease, respectively). The limitations on social interactions and events during the quarantine period seem to have led to the reduction of MDMA and cocaine and driven a sharp decrease of their use in most areas studied (up to 11 and 6 times lower, respectively). However, the re-opening of activities led to a pronounced consumption increase, reaching maximum daily values of 800 and 2691 mg/1000 inhabitants/day, respectively. In 2021, drug use was re-established to lower levels. The examination of weekly patterns during this year revealed higher weekend use of methamphetamine, MDMA and cocaine. Our results suggest that both the implementation and the easing of COVID-19 related measures affected the availability and the use of drugs. This study also provides the first insight on the consumption of illicit drugs in the Republic of Cyprus during pre-, post- and pandemic times and demonstrates the importance of WBE.
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Affiliation(s)
- M Psichoudaki
- Nireas-International Water Research Centre, University of Cyprus, P.O. Box 20537, 1678 Nicosia, Cyprus
| | - T Mina
- Nireas-International Water Research Centre, University of Cyprus, P.O. Box 20537, 1678 Nicosia, Cyprus; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, School of Engineering, University of Cyprus, P.O. Box 20537, 1678, Nicosia, Cyprus
| | - M Savvidou
- Cyprus National Addictions Authority, 2027 Nicosia, Cyprus
| | - C Mina
- Cyprus National Addictions Authority, 2027 Nicosia, Cyprus
| | - C Michael
- Nireas-International Water Research Centre, University of Cyprus, P.O. Box 20537, 1678 Nicosia, Cyprus
| | - D Fatta-Kassinos
- Nireas-International Water Research Centre, University of Cyprus, P.O. Box 20537, 1678 Nicosia, Cyprus; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, School of Engineering, University of Cyprus, P.O. Box 20537, 1678, Nicosia, Cyprus.
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Lovrić M, Antunović M, Šunić I, Vuković M, Kecorius S, Kröll M, Bešlić I, Godec R, Pehnec G, Geiger BC, Grange SK, Šimić I. Machine Learning and Meteorological Normalization for Assessment of Particulate Matter Changes during the COVID-19 Lockdown in Zagreb, Croatia. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH 2022; 19:ijerph19116937. [PMID: 35682517 PMCID: PMC9180289 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph19116937] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2022] [Revised: 05/30/2022] [Accepted: 06/02/2022] [Indexed: 02/04/2023]
Abstract
In this paper, the authors investigated changes in mass concentrations of particulate matter (PM) during the Coronavirus Disease of 2019 (COVID-19) lockdown. Daily samples of PM1, PM2.5 and PM10 fractions were measured at an urban background sampling site in Zagreb, Croatia from 2009 to late 2020. For the purpose of meteorological normalization, the mass concentrations were fed alongside meteorological and temporal data to Random Forest (RF) and LightGBM (LGB) models tuned by Bayesian optimization. The models’ predictions were subsequently de-weathered by meteorological normalization using repeated random resampling of all predictive variables except the trend variable. Three pollution periods in 2020 were examined in detail: January and February, as pre-lockdown, the month of April as the lockdown period, as well as June and July as the “new normal”. An evaluation using normalized mass concentrations of particulate matter and Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted. The results showed that no significant differences were observed for PM1, PM2.5 and PM10 in April 2020—compared to the same period in 2018 and 2019. No significant changes were observed for the “new normal” as well. The results thus indicate that a reduction in mobility during COVID-19 lockdown in Zagreb, Croatia, did not significantly affect particulate matter concentration in the long-term..
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Affiliation(s)
- Mario Lovrić
- Know-Center, Inffeldgasse 13, 8010 Graz, Austria; (M.K.); (B.C.G.)
- Institute for Anthropological Research, Gajeva 32, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia;
- Correspondence: (M.L.); (I.S.)
| | | | - Iva Šunić
- Institute for Anthropological Research, Gajeva 32, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia;
| | - Matej Vuković
- Pro2Future GmbH, Inffeldgasse 25F, 8010 Graz, Austria;
| | - Simonas Kecorius
- Institute of Epidemiology, Helmholtz Zentrum München, Ingolstädter Landstr. 1, 85764 Neuherberg, Germany;
| | - Mark Kröll
- Know-Center, Inffeldgasse 13, 8010 Graz, Austria; (M.K.); (B.C.G.)
| | - Ivan Bešlić
- Environmental Hygiene Unit, Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health, Ksaverska cesta 2, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia; (I.B.); (R.G.); (G.P.)
| | - Ranka Godec
- Environmental Hygiene Unit, Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health, Ksaverska cesta 2, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia; (I.B.); (R.G.); (G.P.)
| | - Gordana Pehnec
- Environmental Hygiene Unit, Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health, Ksaverska cesta 2, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia; (I.B.); (R.G.); (G.P.)
| | | | - Stuart K. Grange
- Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland;
- Wolfson Atmospheric Chemistry Laboratories, Department of Chemistry, University of York, York YO10 5DD, UK
| | - Iva Šimić
- Environmental Hygiene Unit, Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health, Ksaverska cesta 2, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia; (I.B.); (R.G.); (G.P.)
- Correspondence: (M.L.); (I.S.)
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