Wastewater Analysis for the Detection of World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Prohibited Substances

Performance and image enhancing drugs (PIEDs) are used by athletes and non-athletes to improve athletic performance as well as physical appearance. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) prohibits the use of these substances due to their potential to enhance sports performance, (potential) health risks, and because their use violates the spirit of sport. Easy access to these chemicals for the general public, facilitated by online markets, enables misuse behaviour among non-athletes and has been deemed a concern to public health in peer-reviewed literature. Performance and image enhancing drug prevalence is currently estimated through surveys, seizure data, and anti-doping testing. Surveys are limited by voluntary and honest participation as well as small sample size, and single point-in-time measurements that do not truly capture use and prevalence. The extent of performance and image enhancing drug use among wider populations is not fully understood.

Recently, wastewater analysis has emerged as a useful technique for monitoring the consumption of chemicals at the population level. For illicit drugs, this is particularly useful, as often these are consumed in a clandestine fashion. As such, wastewater analysis has also been proposed to monitor the use of PIEDs. However, the suitability of wastewater analysis for PIEDs has not yet been thoroughly investigated as the chemical biomarkers suitable for wastewater analysis need to meet a range of criteria. These criteria include excretion via urine, detectability and stability in wastewater influent and within the sewer, and uniqueness to human metabolism.

This project aims to address this knowledge gap by developing suitable analytical methods to detect these substances and evaluating a range of PIEDs against these criteria. The end goal is to use wastewater analysis to measure PIED prevalence and emergence among the general population.

Research Outputs

Shimko, K.M., Piatkowski, T., Thomas, K.V., Speers, N., Brooker, L., Tscharke, B.J. and O’Brien, J.W., 2021. Performance-and image-enhancing drug use in the community: use prevalence, user demographics and the potential role of wastewater-based epidemiology. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 419, p.126340.

Shimko, K.M., O’Brien, J.W., Li, J., Tscharke, B.J., Brooker, L., Thai, P.K., Choi, P.M., Samanipour, S. and Thomas, K.V., 2022. In-sewer stability assessment of anabolic steroids and selective androgen receptor modulators. Environmental Science & Technology, 56(3), pp.1627-1638.

Shimko, K.M., O’Brien, J.W., Lin, X., Tscharke, B.J. and Thomas, K.V., 2023. In-sample stability of 52 performance-and image-enhancing drug biomarkers in wastewater. ACS ES&T Water, 3(3), pp.669-678.

Shimko, K., 2022. Evaluating the suitability of wastewater analysis for the detection and monitoring of performance-and image-enhancing drug use. (PhD Thesis).

Shimko, K.M., O’Brien, J.W., Tscharke, B.J., Brooker, L., Goebel, C., Shiels, R., Speers, N., Mueller, J.F. and Thomas, K.V., 2022. Prevalence and emergence of steroidal and non-steroidal anabolic agents in the Australian community measured through wastewater analysis. Toxicologie Analytique et Clinique, 34(3), pp.S22-S23.

Conference Presentations

Shimko, K. M., O'Brien, J. W., Tscharke, B. J., Brooker, L., Geobel, C., Shiels, R., Speers, N., Mueller, J. F., Thomas, K. V. "Prevalence and emergence of steroidal and non-steroidal anabolic agents in the Australian community measured through wastewater analysis." 30th meeting of SFTA - 59th meeting of TIAFT, Versailles, France, 5-8 September 2022.

Shimko, K., Thomas, K., O’Brien, J., Tscharke, B., Mueller, J., Speers, N., Goebel, C. & Brooker, L. Could wastewater analysis be a useful tool for determining community usage of performance- and image-enhancing drugs (PIEDs)?, SETAC-AU Conference 2021, Melbourne, Australia, 30 August – 2 September 2021.

Shimko, K., O’Brien, J., Tscharke, B., Mueller, J., Speers, N., Goebel, C., Brooker, L. & Thomas, K. Wastewater analysis for the detection of performance- and image-enhancing drugs (PIEDs), Testing the Waters 5, Brisbane Australia, 28 September – 1 October 2021.

Shimko, K., O’Brien, J., Tscharke, B., Li, J., Brooker, L., Choi, P., Piatkowski, T., Speers, N., Thai, P., Samanipour, S. & Thomas, K. Can wastewater analysis be used to improve our understanding of the extent of performance- and image-enhancing drug use in the general community? TIAFT The 58th International Association of Forensic Toxicologists Annual Meeting 1-3 February 2022.

Shimko, K., O’Brien, J.W., Tscharke, B.J., Brooker, L., Goebel, C., Shiels, R., Speers, N., Mueller, J.F. and Thomas, K.V. Prevalence and emergence of steroidal and non-steroidal anabolic agents in the Australian community measured through wastewater analysis, TIAFT 59^th Annual Meeting, 5-8 September 2022.

Awards and Prizes

• Testing the Waters 5 Conference 2021, Overall Best Student Presentation for Wastewater analysis for the detection of performance- and image-enhancing drugs (PIEDS).