Modeling of Reactions in Confined Spaces

Abstract: 

Drugs and exposome: everything wastewater can tell about us.

José Benito Quintana

Department of Analytical Chemistry, Nutrition and Food Sciences. IAQBUS - Institute of Research on Chemical and Biological Analysis. Universidade de Santiago de Compostela

E-mail: jb.quintana(ELIMINAR)@usc.es

In this last year we have learned that wastewater can be a really useful early-warning tool to monitor the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus at a local scale. However, this is only the latest application of called Wastewater-Based Epidemiology (WBE), which is based on a very simple premise: municipal wastewater can be considered as a large (and diluted) pooled urine sample. Thus, we can perform a pseudo-human biomonitoring, but covering the whole population at local level, (almost) without ethical issues and in a much cost-effective and rapid manner. Indeed, there are limitations and different considerations that need to be accounted for. In this talk I will talk about the basis of WBE, those limitations, analytical and quality assurance considerations, as well as some of the various applications. In this context, the very first applications of WBE data back to 15 years ago when the technique was applied to the determination of cocaine consumption. Since then, measuring the abuse of illicit (and later licit) substances has been a major application field, particularly since the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Additions (EMCDDA, https://www.emcdda.europa.eu/topics/pods/waste-water-analysis) started its annual monitoring campaign based on WBE. However, as already mentioned for COVID-19, many other applications are possible, among which monitoring human exposure to chemical pollutants is an emerging application field, that will also be covered in the talk. Finally, the Spanish Network of WBE (ESAR-Net: www.esarnet.es) which is currently establishing a WBE monitoring network with the support of the Spanish "Plan Nacional Sobre Drogas" and its activities will be also presented.