Grow your own - health risks and benefits of producing and consuming your own food in urban areas

在英国，有超过25万的土地分配持有者，许多在城市地区，在许多城市花园里种植水果和蔬菜，通常是在已知有环境污染遗留问题的地区。种植和食用“自家种植”的食物既有风险又有好处，但风险和好处的平衡以及由此产生的对人类健康的净影响尚未明确确定。这限制了为城市粮食生产相关政策和做法制定循证措施。城市地区遭受着与以前的工业活动、燃煤、机动车辆、废物焚烧和倾倒有关的土壤污染的遗留问题。铅、镉和砷等有毒元素以及多氯联苯和二恶英等有毒持久性有机污染物在城市环境中最为丰富，其浓度往往具有潜在危险。此外，英国某些地区的土壤中存在天然存在的有毒物质，包括砷。从土壤到人类的污染途径特别难以量化，因为污染最严重的地区通常是局部的，往往不容易预测，从土壤到人类摄入的途径涉及生物，环境和人为因素之间的复杂相互作用。污染物从城市土壤转移到人类的最重要途径是通过食用花园和分配地种植的蔬菜、水果和草药以及土壤摄入。“自产”食品的生产者可以通过体育活动和改善营养，以及通过自我赋权、与自然接触和参与社区活动，获得心理和生理上的益处。缺乏体育活动和水果和蔬菜摄入量低与健康状况不佳有关，但人们对体育锻炼和水果和蔬菜消费的健康益处与环境的关系知之甚少。对这些好处的研究往往集中在特定的社会群体，如老年人或精神疾病患者。我们的小组已经聚集在一起，提供与城市食品生产和消费相关的整个环境健康周期相关的专业知识。这包括污染物的沉积和分布、土壤过程、植物与土壤的相互作用、生产和消费行为、营养、公共卫生和社会经济因素。我们的目标是确定高优先级，跨学科的研究需要在环境科学和人类健康之间的这个特定的接口。其结果将是发展进一步开展跨学科研究方案的能力，以解决在评估城市地区作物生产和消费的风险和效益方面的突出问题。具体产出将是：- 分析文献和数据质量问题; -在高质量期刊上发表文章; -至少提出一项进一步供资的提案和进一步提案的纲要方案; -为关键政策和实践利益攸关方提供上述内容的摘要; -为未来研究对科学家进行早期职业培训土壤退化和微量金属缺乏;新技术的应用;社会经济地位在形成相关健康风险行为中的作用;不同群体的易感性;评估各种物理和行为途径的暴露和生物利用度。

In the UK there are over 250,000 allotment holders, many in urban areas, and in many city gardens fruit and vegetables are grown, often in regions known to have a legacy of environmental pollution. The activities of cultivating and eating 'home grown' foods holds both risks and benefits, yet the balance of risk and benefits and the resulting net implications for human health have not been clearly established. This has constrained development of evidence-based measures for policy and practice relating to urban food production. Urban areas suffer a legacy of soil pollution linked to former industrial activities, coal burning, motor vehicles, waste incineration and dumping. Toxic elements including lead, cadmium, and arsenic, and toxic persistent organic pollutants (POPs) such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and dioxins are most abundant in urban environments, often at potentially dangerous concentrations. In addition, naturally occurring toxic substances, including arsenic occur in soils in some areas of the UK. Pollutant pathways from soil to humans are particularly difficult to quantify as the most seriously contaminated areas are typically localised, often cannot be easily predicted, and the pathways from soil to human ingestion involve complex interactions between biological, environmental and human factors. The most important pathway of pollutant transfer from urban soil to humans is through consumption of vegetables, fruit and herbs grown in gardens and allotments, and soil ingestion. Producers of 'home grown' food can gain psychological and physiological benefits through physical activity and improved nutrition, as well as through self empowerment, engaging with nature, and participating in communal activities. Lack of physical activity and low intake of fruit and vegetables is linked to poor health, but little is known about how the health benefits of physical exercise and fruit and vegetable consumption relate to their environmental setting. Studies of these benefits have often focused on particular social groups such as the elderly or those with mental illness. Our group has been assembled to provide a critical mass of expertise relating to the whole environment-health cycle associated with urban food production and consumption. This encompasses deposition and distribution of pollutants, soil processes, plant-soil interactions, production and consumption behaviours, nutrition, public health and socio-economic factors. Our aim is to identify high-priority, interdisciplinary research needs at this specific interface between environmental sciences and human health. The outcome will be to develop the capacity for further interdisciplinary research programmes to address the outstanding problems in assessment of risks and benefits of production and consumption of crops in urban areas. Specific outputs will be: - analysis of literature and data quality issues; - publication in high quality journal; - at least one proposal for further funding and a outline programme for further proposals; - summary of above for key policy and practice stakeholders; - early career training of scientists for future research The proposal is particularly relevant to E&HH themes: chronic low level exposures to toxins; soil degradation and trace metal deficiencies; application of new techniques; the role of socio-economic status in shaping behaviours relevant health risks; susceptibility of different groups; assessment of exposure and bioavailability from various physical and behavioural pathways.