Opioids are a class of drugs that include illegal drugs (heroin), synthetic drug (e.g. fentanyl), and many pain relievers (e.g Vicodin®). These drugs are chemically related and interact with the opioid receptors on nerve cells in the body and brain.
The US is facing an opioid crisis. Deaths from opioids are increasing. Opioid abuse is a serious public health issue. Today, overdose deaths are the leading cause of injury deaths in the US.
Tempe, AZ, has provided data on Probability-Normalized Mass Load of opioids in the wastewater in the hopes that one may be able to use these data to infer opioid use patterns. Researchers with Arizona State University go at randomized times to 15 places in the city where they have access to wastewater. The locations of the testing are also randomized.Those researchers collect samples, taking them back to be processed for traces of materials with opioids. It is also continually updated, so you will need to state when the data was pulled. In parallel, they have released data on EMS calls for probable opioid abuse. Both of these datasets are supposed to reflect underlying opioid abuse patterns.
Cincinnati has also released EMS calls for a single Opiod – Heroin - Cincinnati Heroin overdose data. This data is comprised of the Cincinnati Fire Department responses to reported heroin overdose incidents, and does not include patient information or medical outcome data. It is continually updated, so you will need to state when the data was pulled. Geo-spatial information is provided.
All questions and concerns can be sent to sbp-brims@andrew.cmu.edu
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