Estimating Community Drug Abuse by Wastewater Analysis

Re:Estimating Community Drug Abuse by Wastewater Analysis by justsaysmthng on Wednesday April 20, 2016 @05:12AM (#11533140)

I find it very hard to believe that those excreted drug residues don't react with detergents, chemicals used for cleaning, oils from foods and all kinds of other pills, drugs and plants that end up in sewage. Does the study take that into account ?

Also, it is said that about 80% of dollar bills contain traces of cocaine. So combine the measurements of drugs on money and of drugs in shit and you end up with an interesting picture of society..

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Re:Estimating Community Drug Abuse by Wastewater Analysis by danieltiIlett on Wednesday April 20, 2016 @12:11PM (#11535436)

If it's made it through your body, it's likely to make it through the sewer... Not a lot of really reactive stuff there (cleaners/oils/detergents dissolve, not degrade), anything super reactive (e.g. bleach) exhausts itself chewing on poop. Microbial degradation is a thing, but it's not very different from human degradation so anything that's already been excreted is probably pretty stable.

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