The consumption of alcohol in a population is usually monitored through individual questionnaires, forensics, and toxicological data. However, consumption estimates have some biases, mainly due to the accumulation of alcohol stocks. This study's objective was to assess alcohol consumption in Slovakia during the COVID-19 pandemic-related lockdown using wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE). Samples of municipal wastewater were collected from three Slovak cities during the lockdown and during a successive period with lifted restrictions in 2020. The study included about 14% of the Slovak population. The urinary alcohol biomarker, ethyl sulfate (EtS), was analyzed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). EtS concentrations were used to estimate the per capita alcohol consumption in each city. The average alcohol consumption in the selected cities in 2020 ranged between 2.1 and 327 L/day/1000 inhabitants and increased during days with weaker restrictions. WBE can provide timely information on alcohol consumption at the community level, complementing epidemiology-based monitoring techniques (e.g., population surveys and sales statistics).

• Keywords
• COVID-19, alcohol, liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, lockdown, urban wastewater,
• MeSH
• Chromatography, Liquid methods   MeSH
• COVID-19 * epidemiology   MeSH
• Wastewater-Based Epidemiological Monitoring * MeSH
• Ethanol analysis   MeSH
• Communicable Disease Control MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Pandemics MeSH
• Alcohol Drinking epidemiology   MeSH
• Tandem Mass Spectrometry methods   MeSH
• Cities MeSH
• Check Tag
• Humans MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH
• Geographicals
• Slovakia epidemiology   MeSH
• Cities MeSH
• Names of Substances
• diethyl sulfate MeSH Browser
• Ethanol MeSH