Individuazione delle Eventuali Correlazioni Esistenti tra le Concentrazioni delle Principali Droghe d’Abuso Associate al Particolato Atmosferico e Quelle di Altri Inquinanti.

Psychotropic substances in the atmosphere were monitored in Italy in the frame of the Ariadrugs and PSALM Projects, both aimed at assessing their behavior with regards to spatial and temporal modulations. Average yearly concentrations ranged from 0.02 ± 0.01 to 0.26 ± 0.11 ng m-3 for cocaine, from 0.05 ± 0.05 to 0.96 ± 1.37 ng m-3 for cannabinoids, from 16 ± 6 to 61 ± 28 ng m-3 for nicotine, and from 1.0 ± 0.8 to 8 ± 7 ng m-3 for caffeine. Palermo and Turin were the cities suffering the lowest and the highest psychotropic substance concentrations, respectively. Levels of atmospheric drugs appeared depending on the abuse prevalence in each city. Thus, correlations between drugs and recognized pollutants were checked to identify tools eventually suitable for normalizing the drug concentrations with respect to atmospheric variables. Among all of the chemicals investigated nicotine looked as the best reference substance to normalize neat concentrations of cocaine with regards to the environmental contour where it is dispersed.