Environmental Health and Justice in Norton Sound, Alaska

描述(由申请人提供) 该项目的目的是与阿拉斯加州诺顿湾地区的15个社区合作，找到有效的方法来限制污染物在自然环境中的释放并减轻对人类健康的影响。这些村庄的大多数居民是因努皮亚特人和尤皮克人，他们依靠收获的野生食物来维持他们和他们的生活方式。我们的合作工作将包括建立一个关于该地区以前使用过的防御工地(FUDS)的信息数据库，以及在这些工地发现的污染物。在我们在阿拉斯加州圣劳伦斯岛成功工作的基础上，我们将开发一个模式，在社区之间交换有关这些战略的信息，事实证明，这些战略与负责清理该地区FUDS的政府机构有效。我们将与村领导合作，提供培训，监督FUDS清理工作，并建立独立的污染物监测项目。我们将共同开发一门环境卫生保健课程，用于诊断和治疗与环境污染物有关的人类健康问题。我们将与地区医疗保健提供者合作，为诺顿湾地区的医疗保健专业人员开发信息交流，讨论环境污染物对人类健康影响的诊断和有效治疗。我们将分析阿拉斯加出生缺陷登记处的历史数据，并与地区卫生保健提供者合作，收集有关该地区儿童出生缺陷频率的数据。我们将收集该地区新妈妈的母乳样本，以分析它们是否存在污染物。这项试点研究将帮助居民设计一种方法，对可能是影响社区健康的重要因素的污染物进行研究，以便他们能够全面参与未来计划在该地区进行的人类健康和污染物研究。这一方法将包括该区域FUDS附近环境采样的协议，检查居民体内污染物的身体负担，并记录环境疾病的发生。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant) The purpose of this project is to work in partnership with fifteen communities in the Norton Sound region of Alaska to find effective means to limit the release and mitigate the human health effects of contaminants in the natural environment. The majority of the residents of these villages are Inupiat and Yupik, indigenous people who depend on the harvest of wild foods to sustain them and their ways of life. Our collaborative work will include constructing a database of information regarding formerly used defense sites (FUDS) in the region and the contaminants found at these sites. Building on our successful work at St. Lawrence Island, Alaska, we will develop a model for exchanging information among the communities about those strategies that proved effective with the government agencies responsible for clean up of FUDS in the region. We will work with village leaders to provide training to oversee FUDS clean-up work and establish independent monitoring programs for contaminants. Together, we will develop an environmental health care curriculum for the diagnosis and treatment of human health problems associated with environmental contaminants. We will work with regional health care providers to develop an information exchange for health care professionals in the Norton Sound region to discuss diagnosis and effective treatment of human health effects of environmental contaminants. We will analyze historical data from the Alaska Birth Defects Registry and work with regional health care providers to collect data on the frequency of birth defects among children in the region. We will collect breast milk samples from new mothers in the region to analyze them for the presence of contaminants. This pilot study will help residents design a methodology for conducting research on contaminants that may be important factors affecting the health of their communities so they can be fully engaged in future human health and contaminants studies planned for the region. This methodology will include protocols for environmental sampling near FUDS in the region, examining body burdens of contaminants in residents and documenting incidences of environmental diseases.