Uranium in Food Grown in an American Indian Community

美洲印第安人社区种植的食物中含有铀

• 批准号: 8200092
• 负责人: Christine Samuel-Nakamura
• 金额: $ 3.42万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-01-01 至 2013-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8200092
• 关键词: Advocacy; Affect; Agriculture; American Indians; Animals; Area; Awareness; Behavior; Blood Circulation; Botanicals; Breathing; Cardiovascular system; Characteristics; Chronic; Cohort Studies; Communities; Comparative Study; Consumption; Coupled; Data; Deposition; Domestic Sheep; Education; Educational Intervention; Enrollment; Environmental Health; Evaluation; Exposure to; Food; Food Chain; Future; Goals; Gray unit of radiation dose; Harvest; Health; Heavy Metals; Herb; Home environment; Housing; Human; Impact evaluation; Indian reservation; Individual; Ingestion; Intervention; Irrigation; Kidney; Kilogram; Knowledge; Leadership; Left; Life; Liver; Livestock; Mass Spectrum Analysis; Melons; Military Personnel; Mining; Monitor; Navajo; Nervous system structure; New Mexico; Newsletter; Outcomes Research; Parents; Participant; Pathway interactions; Plants; Plasma; Play; Poaceae; Policy Developments; Population; Precipitation; Prevention; Publications; Questionnaires; Radial; Reporting; Research; Reservations; Resources; Respondent; Risk; Risk Factors; Route; Sampling; Shapes; Sheep; Site; Soil; Source; Squash; Statutes and Laws; Structure; Study Subject; Surface; Tail; Tissues; Toxic effect; Uranium; Water; animal data; anthropogenesis; base; bean; bone; cohort; drinking; food chain contamination; muscular system; neighborhood safety; response; uptake; wasting

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The broad, long-term objective of this study is to identify the health risks and impact of uranium (U) contamination on harvested animals and plants on the Dini (formerly known as Navajo) reservation. This study provides a food chain assessment of U exposure in an American Indian (AI) reservation in northwestern New Mexico. The study setting was a prime target of U mining for military purposes from 1945 to 1988. More than 1,100 unreclaimed abandoned U mines and structures remain. These abandoned U mines, structures and tailings contaminate the land and vegetation on which humans and livestock consume. The specific aims of the study are to: (1) describe the dietary behavior in Dini residents specifically related to ingestion of locally harvested animals and plants; (2) compare U levels in locally harvested animals and plants from areas known to have high levels of environmental U contamination to those from areas known to have low levels of U contamination; (3) explore potential routes of U exposure for locally harvested plants and animals; and (4) disseminate study findings to the leadership and community on the Navajo reservation. This is a comparison study examining contamination levels in locally harvested animals and plants from reservation areas known to have high levels of environmental U contamination to those from areas known to have low levels of U contamination. Data obtained from the parent study or the DiNEH (Dini Network for Environmental Health) cohort (N=1,304) will serve as the source from which to identify subjects and samples for the research. Of the DiNEH cohort respondents, those individuals who reported positively to questionnaire responses to harvesting sheep (n=280) and crops (n=180) will be selected into the present study. Animal data U levels will be determined on a scale of micrograms (<g) per kilogram (kg) and plants will be reported at Parts Per Million (PPM). Commonly harvested foodstuffs will be examined in this community. Uranium concentration levels will be derived from harvested Ovis aries or sheep (n=38), botanicals including herbs and forage (n=26), crops (n=98), and soil utilizing Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). The representative animal (O. aries), crops (e.g. corn, squash, beans, melon), and plant materials including local forage grasses and herbs will be collected from sample areas within a two mile (3.2 km) radius from the central part of abandoned U mines, tailings/waste piles, and structures. The study will explore potential routes (e.g. water and soil) of U exposure for locally harvested plants and animals. Environmental assessments of soil will be integrated with the National Uranium Resource Evaluation (NURE) and DiNEH data. This research will determine if locally harvested animals and plants on the Dini Reservation are safe for consumption. Study findings will be disseminated and educational information will be provided to the Dini community via newsletters, community and chapter house forums. Findings of U concentration levels will be valuable for predicting U transfer to harvested food and for conducting future evaluations of the impacts of U mining on critical food chain. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This study will examine the dietary contributory risk factors of anthropogenic uranium exposure in harvested food chain among the Navajo Dini population. This a descriptive comparative study that has the potential to answer scientific questions for various communities that rely heavily on locally grown food exposed to mining contamination; the study will augment further inquiry, prevention efforts, intervention, monitoring, education, support legislation, policy development, and advocacy.

描述(由申请人提供)：这项研究的广泛、长期目标是确定铀(U)污染对迪尼(以前称为纳瓦霍)保留地的动物和植物的健康风险和影响。这项研究提供了新墨西哥州西北部一个美洲印第安人(AI)保留地中U暴露的食物链评估。研究背景是1945年至1988年军事用途铀矿的主要目标。仍有1100多个未开垦的废弃铀地雷和建筑物。这些废弃的铀矿、建筑物和尾矿污染了人类和牲畜消费的土地和植被。这项研究的具体目的是：(1)描述迪尼居民的饮食行为，特别是与摄入当地捕获的动物和植物有关的行为；(2)比较已知环境铀污染水平高的地区和已知铀污染水平较低地区的本地捕获的动植物的铀水平；(3)探索当地捕获的动植物接触铀的潜在途径；以及(4)向领导层和社区传播关于纳瓦霍保留地的研究结果。这是一项对比研究，考察了从环境铀污染水平较高的保留区和已知铀污染水平较低的保留区收获的当地动植物的污染水平。从父母研究或DiNEH(环境健康迪尼网络)队列(N=1,304)获得的数据将作为确定研究对象和样本的来源。在DiNEH的队列受访者中，那些对收获绵羊(n=280)和农作物(n=180)的问卷回答积极的个人将被选入本研究。动物数据的铀水平将以每公斤微克(&lt；g)为单位确定，植物数据将以百万分之几(PPM)为单位报告。通常收获的食物将在这个社区进行检查。铀浓度水平将从收获的绵羊或绵羊(n=38)、包括草药和饲料(n=26)的植物(n=26)、农作物(n=98)和土壤中利用电感耦合等离子体质谱(ICP-MS)得出。代表性的动物(O.Aries)、农作物(例如玉米、南瓜、豆类、甜瓜)以及包括当地牧草和草本植物在内的植物材料将从距离废弃铀矿、尾矿/废物堆和建筑物中心两英里(3.2公里)半径内的样本区采集。这项研究将探索当地收获的动植物接触铀的潜在途径(如水和土壤)。土壤环境评估将与国家铀资源评估(NURE)和DiNEH数据相结合。这项研究将确定迪尼保护区当地收获的动植物是否可以安全食用。将通过时事通讯、社区和分会论坛向Dini社区传播研究结果并提供教育信息。铀浓度水平的研究结果将对预测铀向收获食物的转移以及未来对铀开采对关键食物链的影响进行评估具有重要价值。 公共卫生相关性：这项研究将在纳瓦霍迪尼人群中调查收获食物链中人为铀暴露的饮食贡献危险因素。这是一项描述性比较研究，有可能为严重依赖当地种植的暴露于采矿污染的食品的各种社区回答科学问题；这项研究将加强进一步的调查、预防努力、干预、监测、教育、支持立法、政策制定和宣传。