Temporal trends of contaminants in Arctic human populations

Khaled Abass,Arja Rautio,Anastasia Emelyanova

doi:10.1007/s11356-018-2936-8

Abstract

The first Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) report was published in 1998 and followed by three assessment reports of human health (AMAP 2003, 2009 and 2015). The focus area of the AMAP reports was to monitor levels of environmental contaminants in the Arctic and to assess the health effects connected with detected levels in Arctic countries. This review gives an overview of temporal trends of contaminants and their health effects in humans of the Arctic based on data published by AMAP, as well as Russian scientific literature. Several time series of 31 contaminants in humans of the Arctic from different cohorts are reported. The lengths of time series and periods covered differ from each other. International restrictions have decreased the levels of most persistent organic pollutants in humans and food webs. Percentage changes for contaminants in human biological matrices (blood samples from children, mothers and males and breast milk samples) for the period of sampling showed declining trends in most of the monitored Arctic locations, with the exception of oxychlordane, hexachlorobenzene (HCB), 2,2′,4,4′,5,5′-hexabromodiphenyl ether (PBDE153) and perfluorinated compounds (PFCs).

Highlights

The Arctic monitoring and assessment programme (AMAP), an Arctic Council working group, was established in the early 1990s
Biomonitoring data showed the time trends of metals and POPs, except perfluorinated compounds (PFCs), are declining, which indicates the importance of global actions to reduce emissions of contaminants
It is essential that more data are collected on levels and temporal trends of chemicals of emerging Arctic concern in different environmental mediums as well as in human biological media over wider geographical areas

Summary

Introduction

The Arctic monitoring and assessment programme (AMAP), an Arctic Council working group, was established in the early 1990s. Biomonitoring data showed a decline in levels of contaminants in the Faroe Islands Cohort 1, even though there was an increase in p,p′-DDE and β-HCH levels between birth and 13 years, before concentrations decreased when cohort participants were 22.1 years old. The POP concentrations in pregnant Inuit women from Nunavik, Canada decreased significantly over time These included oxychlordane, trans-nonachlor, p,p′-DDT, p,p′DDE, HCB, β-HCH, Mirex, PCB138, PCB180 and PCB153. Data from maternal blood samples from the coastal Chukotka 2001–2003 birth cohort showed a reduction in trends in oxychlordane, p,p′-DDT, p,p′-DDE, HCB, βHCH, Mirex and ∑PCBs between 2001 and 2002 and 2007 (Dudarev et al 2010). The concentration of PFCs in Yup’ik maternal blood showed increasing trends for PFOA, PFNA and PFOS over the time period from 2004 to 2006 to 2009–2012, while the level of PFDA remained similar. While human exposure through traditional diet is one of the main sources of human exposure in the Arctic, the level of contaminants in human biological matrices provides the aggregate exposure from different routes

Conclusion

Findings

Conflicts of interest