Eawag

(German acronym for Drugs, Medicaments, Alcohol and tobacco Residues: Wastewater-based epidemiology in Switzerland)

In the DroMedArio project, we analyze substances of abuse, pharmaceuticals, and selected metabolic products in wastewater to use them as independent indicators of consumption at the population level.

Over a period of four years (2021-2024), a 24-hour composite sample is collected every 13 days from ten Swiss wastewater treatment plants. Together, the participating wastewater treatment plants process the sewage of almost 2 million people, which corresponds to about 23% of the Swiss population. Some of the wastewater treatment plants have already participated in the past years in the SCORE (Sewage Analysis CORe group Europe)/EMCDDA (European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction) wastewater-based monitoring program for illegal drugs.

The collected wastewater samples are analyzed using high-resolution mass spectrometry, which allows for the quantitative measurement of the target analytes and a qualitative screening for suspects. As part of the project, wastewater markers for illegal drugs, pharmaceuticals with abuse potential, alcohol, and tobacco are quantified. Monitoring these markers in wastewater enables the estimation of temporal trends and spatial differences in consumption.

The DroMedArio project is funded by the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH), Eawag, and UNIL.