Collaborative Research: Sustainable management of human organic pollutant exposure (HOPE) at formerly used defense sites in the changing Arctic

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The Arctic is contaminated by persistent organic pollutants (POPs) from many sources, including thousands of formerly used defense (FUD) sites. As the climate warms, POPs that had been bound in Arctic soils become more mobile and enter the food chain, ultimately increasing human health risks from exposure to POPs. The research team is collaborating closely with the Qawalangin Tribe of Unalaska and City of Unalaska through a participatory research approach to understand the risks of human exposure to POPs on Unalaska Island. The community-driven co-production approach enables the continuation of culturally important subsistence lifestyles, trains residents for research and management techniques, and fosters proactive and sustainable public health risk management. The results will inform management and remediation efforts at FUD sites and thereby provide knowledge to make informed decisions about local resources and minimize the health hazards faced by local populations. The community-engaged research includes workshops, interviews, and an environmental monitoring academy to collect the information and samples for priority community needs. Workshops and interviews are being conducted to identify research questions that are community-driven and at a system scale related to sustainable management of POPs grounded in tribal self-determination. The environmental monitoring academy includes classroom sessions and field exercises on nutritional benefits of a subsistence diet, sources and health effects of contaminants, environmental mapping, sampling techniques, operation of analytical instruments, and appropriate quality assurance/quality control procedures. Students collect and analyze environmental samples that are critical for comprehensive understanding of FUD site pollution. To track broader impacts, we are administering questionnaires at the end of workshops and academies to assess the extent to which the community is gaining tools and information to address issues surrounding POPs.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.