Drug testing ... on your sewer

March edition of Popular Science. Your Sewer on Drugs.

The article is 4-5 pages long and quite interesting. Testing on the sewage system to check various issues but along the way, also testing for drugs.

According to the Annotated Sample on the final page of the article, 95% of sewage is water. The other 5% is what is more interesting.

Germs - e coli, strep, polio, hepatitis
Prescription drugs - hospitals, pharmacies, physicians, and patients - dump it down their sinks and toilets.
Illegal drugs - testing is possible for 20 illegal drugs.
Pesticides - agricultural runoff and improper disposal by the public.
Industrial Waste - from factories, paper mills and smelters
Toiletries - from shampoo to cosmetics
Solid Waste - heavy metals, needles, condoms, diapers, even dead animals.

Fascinating shit.

Drug tests are fine, but how to drug test a city!! Test the sewage.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) uses polls to find out who is and is not taking illegal drugs - but people lie. According to their survey for 2006: 20.4 million Americans age 12 or older were illicit drug users. 14.8 million admitted using marijuana. 2.4 million use cocaine. 731,000 admit to methamphetamine use.

But those numbers may be understated.

An Italian researcher decided to test the PO RIVER in ITALY. His results:
The equivalent of four kilograms of cocaine flow through the PO each day (they were search for benzoylecgonine). That breaks down to 40,000 dozes of 100 milligrams (pinch of sugar). If it were distributed among all people age 15 to 35, about 2.7% use cocaine. According to this research and figures, it is double what Italy believes is the rate of usage.

They checked on Milan - cocaine use spikes on weekends and levels off during week, but it doesn't drop! Use is ongoing or habitual.

This is one way to drug test a city. See if it is passing or not. Watch for this in the future when federal funding goes to city with lowest drug figures. To provide an incentive for cities to do something more than they are doing!


UPDATE: March 10. 2008, Washington Post. Area Tap Water Has Traces of Medicines
Tests Find 6 Drugs, Caffeine in D.C., Va. Whats in your water??