Technology development for the non-invasive assessment of exposure to toxic metals

这项NSERC发现研究提案的目的是开发新技术来测量人体器官和组织中有毒元素的水平，如骨骼，皮肤，肝脏和肾脏，无痛，安全，简单和舒适。我特别希望开发一套系统，用于测量皮肤中的砷、骨骼中的氟、肌肉、肝脏和肾脏中的钆以及肺中的铟。 矿产和金属对我们的经济非常重要，占加拿大与其他国家贸易总额的17%。作为一个国家，我们希望能够利用我们的自然资源为我们造福，但我们需要确保我们在这样做的同时保护人民和环境。我们通常通过血液和尿液样本监测人们暴露于潜在毒素的情况，但这提供的信息通常是最近暴露的。我们今天看到的健康影响可能是因为过去的暴露，而今天的血液或尿液样本可能会错过这一点。然而，有些毒素会随着时间的推移在骨骼、肝脏或肾脏中积累。如果我们可以无痛地测量这些组织中的水平，我们就可以评估一个人的长期暴露。 这项申请提议利用辐射技术开发加拿大的新技术，以便能够迅速监测人们受到的辐射，而不会感到不适。

The aim of this NSERC Discovery research proposal is the development of new technologies to measure the levels of toxic elements in organs and tissues, such as bone, skin, liver and kidney painlessly, safely, simply and comfortably in people. I specifically wish to develop systems for the measurement of arsenic in skin, fluoride in bone, gadolinium in muscle, liver and kidney, and indium in the lung. Minerals and metals are very important to our economy and comprise 17% of Canada's total trade with other countries. As a nation, we wish to be able to use our natural resources for our benefit, but we need to ensure that we protect people and the environment while we do so. Often we monitor people's exposure to potential toxins through blood and urine samples, but the information this provides is usually of recent exposure. Health effects that we see today, may be because of exposure in the past and a present day blood or urine sample may miss this. Some toxins, however, accumulate over time in bone, liver or kidney. If we can painlessly measure the levels in those tissues, we can assess a person's long term exposure. This application proposes to use radiation techniques to develop new Canadian technology that will allow the monitoring of people's exposure quickly and with no discomfort.