Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) has been
demonstrated to be a valuable tool in the assessment of the
health and well-being of a community, with the detection
of various indicators by analysing the influent wastewater
coming in Wastewater Treatment Plants. The accurate
identification and quantification of analytes and their
metabolites associated with daily life facilitate the
extraction of conclusions regarding trends and the
prediction of future consumption.
The analysis of wastewater necessitates a methodology
that is capable of cleaning the sample and preconcentrating
the analytes, which are present in low concentrations. A
highly promising pretreatment method is DLLME due to
its combination of rapidity and reduced cost. The objective
of this study is to reveal the capabilities of DLLME in
Wastewater Epidemiology.
An optimized DLLME method was developed for the
monitoring of two significant classes of compounds:
namely, psychoactive substances and antibiotics. This
method was developed through the selection of the most
suitable conditions and was subsequently validated. The
validated method was applied to real samples from two
different periods of time, and the results were statistically
compared with the corresponding ones from the validated
SPE method.