Effects driven assessment and management of complex operating sites

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There are many complex operating sites located across Canada. These sites contain a wide variety of chemicals of potential concern, many of which have arisen due to partial breakdown in the soil and water. For most of these chemicals, there are no well-defined safe limits or detailed toxicological information. The purpose of this Collaborative Research and Development proposal is to develop a method to assess the amount, environmental movement, toxicity and risk of complex mixtures of ill-defined pollutants. Working closely with our industrial partners, IPCO, Amec Foster Wheller and the Manitoba Conservation Authority, we will use effects driven assessment to estimate the distribution and risk across a complex operating site. Effects driven assessment uses non-animal based toxicity tests, for example liver cell lines, to estimate how toxic a pollutant mixture is in soil, water and air. Here we propose to extend this effects driven assessment to develop a model of how these complex mixtures of toxicants move through the soil, air and water. Following this, we will then use a variety of cell lines, for example intestinal, liver, lung and kidney cell lines, to identify what components of the mixture are most toxic and how do they cause toxicity. Using a fish animal model, we will then confirm this mode of toxicity using a standard animal design. Finally, we will estimate the risk posed to humans by this complex mixture of toxicants by comparing the response of cells lines to the toxicant mixture to the same cell lines' response to a collection of 30 reference toxicants. These reference toxicants already have animal data associated with them, and thus we will be able to read across from our mixture to these reference toxicants to infer safe exposure levels for humans. At the conclusion of this project, we will have developed a method for Canadian's to assess the risk associated with complex operating sites.