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ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Short-Term Trends and Site Differences
of Methamphetamine and Ketamine Consumption
in Two Cities by Wastewater Analysis
1
School of Environment and Resource, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang 621010, China
Submission date: 2024-03-25
Final revision date: 2024-05-14
Acceptance date: 2024-07-03
Online publication date: 2024-10-14
Publication date: 2025-07-05
Corresponding author
Huanbo Wang
School of Environment and Resource, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang 621010, China
School of Environment and Resource, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang 621010, China
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2025;34(5):5271-5279
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) is an alternative approach for monitoring the prevalence
of illicit drug abuse. The levels of methamphetamine and ketamine in the influent wastewater from
eight wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) during four months in 2019 were determined by liquid
chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) after solid phase extraction.
Mean population-weighed consumption of methamphetamine and ketamine was 188.6 and 9.1 mg
1000 inh-1 day-1 in City 1, respectively, while the corresponding consumption in City 2 was 57.0 and
7.6 mg 1000 inh-1 day-1. Spatial variations were observed between the two cities and among different
WWTPs within a city. Evident decreasing trends of methamphetamine and ketamine consumption were
observed from the first to the fourth sampling campaign, in which methamphetamine and ketamine
consumption declined by 47% and 38% in City 1 and 44% and 83% in City 2, respectively. This study
provides more comprehensive data on methamphetamine and ketamine consumption, which will help
local anti-drug authorities identify hotspots of illicit drug abuse and take effective measures.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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| eISSN: | 2083-5906 |
| ISSN: | 1230-1485 |
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