ARCRISK

Arctic Health Risks: Impacts on health in the Arctic and Europe owing to climate-induced changes in contaminant cycling

 Partecipanti

Mappa

 Word cloud

Esplora la "nuvola delle parole (Word Cloud) per avere un'idea di massima del progetto.

 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'Long-range transport of contaminants to the Arctic, the resulting exposures observed in Arctic human populations, and impacts of such exposures on human health have been the subject of considerable work in recent years, providing a baseline against which to compare future developments. Global climate change has the potential to remobilize environmental contaminants and alter contaminant transport pathways, fate, and routes of exposure in human populations. The Arctic is particularly sensitive to climate change and already exhibits clear impacts. Research into contaminant exposure and its effects on human health in the Arctic, in comparison with other exposed populations in Europe, presents an opportunity to gain insight into changes that may later impact other areas. The influence of climate change on contaminant spreading and transfer and the resultant risk to human populations in the Arctic and other areas of Europe will be studied by: 1) Research on the ways in which climate change will affect the long-range transport and fate of selected groups of contaminants, and possible implications for the re-distribution of contaminants (geographically and between relevant environmental media). This will involve modelling, utilizing the information base that exists on the distribution of such contaminants in the Arctic and other areas of Europe; 2) Research on the impacts that changing pathways and climatic conditions will have on contaminant uptake and transfer within food webs, leading to foods consumed by humans. This will involve experimental work, process studies and targeted analytical studies, the latter focussed on supporting the modelling work and process studies related to human exposure to contaminants; 3) Research focussing on human health, aimed at determining how climate-mediated changes in the environmental fate of selected groups of contaminants will result in changes in exposure of human populations, in the Arctic and in selected areas of Europe.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

A European initiative investigated pathways of long-range transport of contaminants to the Arctic and its effect on the food chain, leading to human exposure.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

The EU-funded ARCRISK (Arctic Health Risks: Impacts on health in the Arctic and Europe owing to climate-induced changes in contaminant cycling) project modelled the potential impact of climate change on the long-range atmospheric transport of environmental contaminants. The source of the contaminants was regions in the Northern Hemisphere. The transfer of contaminants to the Arctic via ocean currents was also investigated together with the potential influence of climate on contaminant cycling in the Arctic.

Researchers investigated the link between these changes with potential changes in human exposure to contaminants from the consumption of animals caught in the Arctic. This was achieved using a model of a marine food web, which enabled researchers to estimate the transfer of organic contaminants to polar cod and seals consumed by humans. The results were compared with a European region by using a model to assess the influence of climate change on the environmental fate and transport of organic pollutants in the Black Sea.

Samples of snow, sea ice and seawater were collected from the marine environment near Svalbard and in the Barents and Greenland Seas. They were used to determine levels of organochlorine pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls and perfluorinated compounds.

Partners studied the transfer of contaminants from air to snow and their fate in a melting snowpack. Levels of contaminants in local foods including Arctic char, salmon and reindeer were also determined.

Results showed that persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and mercury had the most significant effects on the developing foetus, on children and on women of reproductive age. Therefore, it will be essential to follow the trends in human exposure to POPs and mercury in the Arctic and the impacts of these contaminants in the subgroups most at risk.

Some new or emerging organic contaminants affecting the Arctic possess different properties to 'legacy' POPs and their behaviour may be different. Reduction in the amount of snow and ice will help to release these compounds to meltwater rather than back into the atmosphere.

The assessment tools developed and used by ARCRISK with databases, models and monitoring systems form a sound basis for further quantitative analysis of climate change impacts on variations in human heath exposure. These variations may be the result of changes in contaminant origin, the fate of transported contaminants and their behaviour in the environment, as well as uptake and transfer in food chains.