UNM Metals Exposure and Toxicity Assessment on tribal Lands in the Southwest (METALS) Superfund Research Program

金属概述 西南SRP中心部落土地的UNM金属暴露和毒性评估 （金属）专注于纳瓦霍民族的>500个废弃铀矿（AUM），以及 拉古纳普韦布洛，冷战的遗产，现在正在评估根据综合性环境反应、赔偿和责任法案。他们代表>4500 AUM 在美国西部的15个地区，超过1/2的土著人口居住在那里。在成立阶段， 金属，我们的团队与我们的土著合作伙伴密切合作，以确定自采矿以来 从20世纪40年代开始，数百万吨废物中的金属混合物风化产生了纳米颗粒 不同的矿物。虽然这些纳米颗粒对废物的流动性和毒性都有影响， 由于数据差距很大，在确定优先次序或进行清理时没有考虑这些问题。我们的健康研究 暴露于这些金属混合物会增加高血压、多种慢性 疾病、免疫功能障碍和自身抗体产生。虽然约25%的人口显示没有 暴露证据，生物监测证实， 金属的浓度明显高于美国其他地区的人口。我们的社区合作伙伴 方法和强大的团队整合，包括社区合作伙伴，使我们的临床设计 科学合理和尊重文化的干预措施，我们参与率很高 和遵守。第二阶段的金属将建立在我们强大的社区合作伙伴关系，以推动我们的研究， 他们的需要，并使用单原子，国家的科学，透射电子显微镜，以两者的答案 社区对农业安全的问题，因为颗粒物再分布的影响，并了解 再悬浮、环境流动性和植物吸收的过程，以告知风险 还原我们确认了多种暴露途径，以及金属诱导炎症的证据， 氧化应激导致我们研究摄入和吸入在社区暴露中的作用。 这些研究将探索高剂量暴露于肺和肠道中的免疫调节细胞， 改变全身免疫功能，为设计更有针对性的干预措施提供信息。我们认识到， 植物/真菌共生在环境金属混合物的转化导致了我们的合作， 国家塞维利亚长期生态研究计划在新墨西哥州的发展和测试， 基于天然真菌群落平衡及其与地球化学的相互作用的真菌生物反应器 变量作为补救策略。这些补救方法提供了一种新的策略，以克服 细菌生物反应器在我们的氧化环境中的无效性，并产生可持续的，具有成本效益的 保护具有重要文化意义的关键资源。我们的团队将建立在我们强大的合作伙伴关系， 与社区、研究人员、临床医生、部落和联邦政策制定者建立共同对话， 我们以解决方案为导向的团队科学，为社区，临床和政策层面的风险降低提供信息。

OVERALL Summary METALS The UNM Metal Exposure and Toxicity Assessment on tribal Lands of the Southwest SRP Center (METALS) focuses on >500 abandoned uranium mines (AUMs) on Navajo Nation, and the Jackpile Mine on Laguna Pueblo, a legacy of the Cold War now being assessed under CERCLA. They represent >4500 AUMs in the 15 Western US that are home to >1/2 of our Indigenous population. During the inaugural phase of METALS, our team worked in close partnership with our Indigenous partners to determine that since mining began in the 1940s, weathering of metal mixtures in the millions of tons of waste has produced nanoparticles of varying mineralogy. While these nanoparticles have implications for both mobility and toxicity of the waste, they are not considered in prioritization or clean-up due to significant data gaps. Our health studies have shown that exposures to these metal mixtures increase the prevalence of hypertension, multiple chronic diseases, and immune dysfunction, and autoantibody production. While ~25% of the population shows no evidence of exposures, biomonitoring confirms an equivalent %age show exposure to clusters of up to 12 metals at significantly higher concentrations than the rest of the US population. Our community-partnered approach and strong team integration inclusive of community partners has allowed our design of clinical interventions that are scientifically sound and respectful of culture, in which we have high rates of participation and compliance. Phase 2 of METALS will build on our strong community partnerships to drive our research by their needs, and use single atom, state of the science, transmission electron microscopy to both answer community questions on agricultural safety as impacted by particulate redistribution, and understand the processes of resuspension, environmental mobility, and plant uptake at a mechanistic scale to inform risk reduction. Our confirmation of multiple routes of exposures, and evidence of metals-induced inflammation and oxidative stress lead us to examine contributions of ingestion and inhalation within community exposures. These studies will explore the potential for high-dose exposures to immune regulatory cells in lung and gut to alter systemic immune function, informing design of more targeted intervention. Our recognition of the role of plant/fungi symbiosis in transformation of environmental metal mixtures has led to our collaboration with the national Sevilleta Long Term Ecological Research program in New Mexico in development and testing of fungal bioreactors based in the balance of native fungal communities and their interactions with geochemical variables as a remediation strategy. These remediation approaches provide a novel strategy to overcome the ineffectiveness of bacterial bioreactors in our oxic environment and produce sustainable, cost-effective solutions to protect key resources of cultural importance. Our team will build on our strong partnerships to build common dialogue with communities, researchers, clinicians, tribal and federal policy makers, informed by our solution-oriented team science to inform risk reduction at community, clinical and policy levels.