*WINNER* Qualification and quantification of various opioids in urban wastewater treatment plant and river by utilization of Solid Phase Extraction (SPE) technique and LC-MS/MS

Abstract

Opioid based pain killers are being prescribed at an alarming rate across the United States, and they are being used and abused at epidemic proportions. Traces of almost everything we eat, smoke, drink, ingest, or absorb are excreted in urine or stool. They travel through the sewage system and end up at wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). In this study, we took influent and effluent water samples from the Cookeville WWTP to measure the concentration of morphine, heroin, oxymorphone, hydromorphone, hydrocodone, and oxycodone in the samples. Additionally, we took water samples from Pigeon Roost Creek above and below the WWTP to determine whether the compounds were completely removed by the WWTP processes. We filtered the samples, extracted them using solid phase extraction (SPE) and analyzed them by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) to qualify and quantify these compounds.