Sheree Pagsuyoin
University of Massachusetts-Lowell, MA·Earth & Environmental Science·Early-career
The opioid crisis may harm rivers as well as people. Many abused prescription and illicit drugs, together with the compounds the body breaks them into, are not fully removed by wastewater treatment.
- Fields
Earth & Environmental Science
Engineering
Ecology & Evolution
- Topics
drugs of abuse
opioids
opioid crisis
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jun 2027
What they work on
- Characterize where and when drugs of abuse and their metabolites occur in river and estuary waters of the Merrimack River watershed, using advanced chemical analytical techniques.
- Quantify how exposure to residual drugs of abuse affects stream productivity and biodiversity in receiving waters.
- Determine kinetic rates of in-stream attenuation, meaning how quickly these drugs naturally break down or are removed as they travel downstream.
- Identify ecotoxicity hotspots for residual drugs in the Merrimack River and develop environmental exposure indices for rapid assessment of waters nationwide.
More about the research
They end up in rivers and estuaries, where little is known about how they spread, how quickly they break down, or how they affect aquatic life. Because many of these drugs act on the nervous system, they may pose risks to fish and other organisms.
Why it matters
Residual opioids and other drugs of abuse flowing out of wastewater systems may threaten aquatic ecosystems. Exposure indices, hotspot maps and rapid assessment tools from this work could help state and local agencies, wastewater managers and communities judge and manage drug contamination in their rivers and estuaries.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Ian Bradley
University at Buffalo, NY·Engineering·Early-career
Identify the environmental and operating factors that improve total nitrogen and phosphorus removal in algae-based wastewater treatment, using lab-scale systems that grow algae on wastewater.
Mark Wiesner
Duke University, NC·Earth & Environmental Science
Coordinate international studies on particle-based delivery systems for nutrients and pesticides in agriculture, materials used in transportation, and advanced materials for water treatment and resource recovery.
James Moberly
University of Idaho, ID·Engineering
Develop an encapsulated biological material in which phosphorus accumulating organisms, microbes that store large amounts of phosphorus, are immobilized within a polymer structure for use in wastewater treatment.
The school
University of Massachusetts-Lowell: 7 labs on PI Pages, $121M a year on research, 149 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
A start for your email. Fill in the brackets.