Improving Wastewater-Based Tobacco Use Estimates Using Anabasine.

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Analytical Chemistry
• Public Health

Background:

• Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) utilizes biomarkers to monitor population-level substance use.
• Nicotine metabolites are traditional biomarkers, but lack specificity due to non-tobacco nicotine sources.
• Minor tobacco alkaloids, anabasine and anatabine, are proposed as more specific tobacco use biomarkers.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the suitability of anabasine and anatabine as WBE biomarkers for tobacco use.
• To estimate excretion factors for anabasine and anatabine for WBE applications.
• To compare tobacco use estimates derived from anabasine and cotinine with sales data.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of pooled urine (n=64) and wastewater samples (n=277) from Queensland, Australia (2009-2019).
• Quantification of nicotine, its metabolites (cotinine, hydroxycotinine), anabasine, and anatabine.
• Calculation of per capita loads and excretion factors, and comparison with tobacco sales data.

Main Results:

• Anabasine demonstrated consistent per capita loads in urine and wastewater (2.2-2.3 μg/day/person).
• Anatabine showed a 50% higher load in wastewater compared to urine.
• Estimated anabasine excretion was 0.9 μg per cigarette smoked.
• Anabasine-based tobacco use estimates were 5% higher than sales data; cotinine-based estimates ranged from 2-28% higher.

Conclusions:

• Anabasine is a suitable and specific biomarker for monitoring tobacco use via WBE.
• The findings support the use of anabasine for more accurate WBE of tobacco consumption.
• Anabasine offers improved specificity over traditional nicotine metabolites.