Assignment: Snapshot of a city’s drug use

Read carefully the article (linked here as an Adobe Acrobat file) entitled “Teaspoon of water can provide researchers profile of a city’s drug use.” (August 2007, AR Dem. Gazette). Also read the section 5.12.3 in the text describing gas chromatography.

1. Which do you believe is more likely the concentration of cocaine in the sewage sample: 1 ppm, 1 ppb, 1 ppt (parts per trillion)?
Defend your choice.

2. Search the internet for the structures of the illegal drugs identified in this study. Are these compounds ionic or covalent?

3. Cite geographical factors that might be related to methamphetamine use that were suggested by this sewage analysis.

4. Were the researchers able to pinpoint how many people in the city used the illegal drugs? Explain.

5. Why is gas chromatography a potential tool for use in analyzing such samples.