Evaluation of different smoking habits during music festivals through wastewater analysis

- LC-HRMS wastewater analysis of nicotine consumption during four music festivals.
- More than 80,000 festivals participants were involved in this study.
- The specific stability correction factor was used to calculate nicotine use.
- The highest consumption of cigarettes was found at pop/rock and dance festivals.

Wastewater analysis is a powerful method that can provide useful information about the abuse of legal and illicit drugs. The aim of our study was to determine nicotine consumption during four different music festivals and to find a connection between smoking and preferences for specific music styles using wastewater analysis. The amount of the nicotine metabolite cotinine was monitored in wastewater at the influent of three waste water treatment plants WWTPs in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, where the festivals took place. Urinary bio-markers of nicotine utilization were analyzed by LC-HRMS. More than 80,000 festival participants were monitored during our study from June to September 2014. A significant increase of nicotine consumption was observed in wastewaters during music festivals. The nicotine ingestion level was back-calculated and expressed as mass of pure drug consumed per day and per 1000 inhabitants for selected cities of both countries. The highest differences between typical levels of cotinine in wastewaters and the levels during music festivals were detected in Piešťany: 4 g/L/1000 inhabitants during non-festival days compared to 8 g/L/1000 inhabitants during the Topfest pop-rock festival and 6 g/L/1000 inhabitants during the Grape dance festival. No significant increase of the amounts of cotinine in wastewater was recorded for the Country and Folk festivals.