摘要：Introduction. A wastewater-based epidemiology approach was performed to estimatethe drug consumption in Palermo city, the fifth largest city of Italy with a population of671 696 inhabitants, and to investigate the monthly variability of drug loads in wastewaterfrom different areas of the city. A seven-months detection campaign was conductedat the two wastewater treatment plants of the city.Methods. Following a pre-treatment, 32 samples of wastewater were analyzed by liquidchromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.Results. We estimated a mean cocaine use in Palermo of 0.19 g/day/1000 people, correspondingto 1.90 doses/1000 people and cannabinoids use of 2.85 g/day/1000 people,corresponding to 35.62 doses/1000 people. Amphetamines residues in wastewater werealways recovered in concentrations lower than the limit of quantification.Conclusion. Our findings showed that drugs consumption in Palermo is in line withthose of other Italian cities and that no significant differences on prevalence on cocaineand cannabinoids consumption were recorded in the different months of the survey, exceptfor the summer period in a wastewater treatment plant of the city.
