Tools to increase risk assessment accuracy of lead and mercury in contaminated soils

Risklogic 是一家环境咨询公司，专门从事受污染工业场地的管理和分析。他们是修复受多种重金属污染的地点的专家，并开发了一种新方法来简化这些地点对野生动物和人类的真正风险。然而，他们的方法需要对两个假设进行实验验证。首先，金属的作用通过相同的机制引起毒性；其次，这些作用是相加的。为了检验这些假设，我们提出铅、无机汞和有机汞都会通过增加氧化应激或通过表观遗传机制引起心血管效应（例如高血压）。我们将使用暴露在饮用水中的这些金属的老鼠（单独或一起）来测试这些假设。最后，我们将检查反应是否存在性别差异。验证Risklogic的模型将加速这一过程并降低与城市棕地相关的修复成本，这反过来又会降低负责清理的公司的成本，减轻经济负担并有助于改善加拿大经济。

Risklogic is an environmental consulting company specializing in management and analysis of contaminated industrial sites. They are experts in remediating sites that are contaminated with multiple heavy metals and have developed a novel method for simplifying how risky these sites really are to both wildlife and humans. However, their method requires experimental validation of two assumptions. First, that the effects of metals cause toxicity through the same mechanism and second, that the effects are additive. In order to test these assumptions, we propose that lead, inorganic mercury and organic mercury all cause cardiovascular effects (e.g. high blood pressure) by increasing oxidative stress or through epigenetic mechanisms. We will test these assumptions using rats exposed in drinking water to these metals, both alone and together. Finally, we will examine whether there are any sex differences in responses. Validating Risklogic's model will accelerate the process and reduce remediation costs associated with urban brownfields which in turn will reduce the costs to companies responsible for cleanup, decrease economic burden and help improve the Canadian economy.