title: Balancing the benefits and costs of traditional food substitution by indigenous Arctic women of childbearing age: Impacts on persistent organic pollutant, mercury, and nutrient intakes.
abstract: For indigenous Arctic Canadians, traditional food consumption represents a key source of nutrients and environmental contaminants. Particularly, ingestion of marine mammal blubber and meat may lead to persistent organic pollutant levels and mercury intakes that exceed regulatory thresholds for sensitive populations. We investigated whether temporary adjustments to the consumption of traditional food derived from marine mammals appreciably impacted contaminant exposure and nutrient intakes among indigenous women of childbearing age. Such adjustments can be motivated by the desire to lower contaminant exposure or to increase nutrition, or by the diminishing availability of other traditional food sources. We combined the contaminant fate and transport model GloboPOP with the food chain bioaccumulation model ACC-Human Arctic to simulate polychlorinated biphenyl exposures in female 2007-08 Inuit Health Survey participants. We also calculated daily mercury and nutrient intake rates. Our results suggest that a temporary decrease in marine mammal consumption is largely ineffective at reducing exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls, because of their long elimination half-lives. In contrast, substitution of marine mammals was highly efficient at reducing mercury intake, but also appreciably lowered intakes of iron, manganese, selenium, and ω-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. The impact of increasing intake of traditional food derived from marine mammals during childbearing age greatly depended on baseline consumption rates; replacement is ill-advised for those who already consume a lot of traditional food due to greater polychlorinated biphenyl and mercury exposures, while replacement was potentially beneficial for those with very limited marine mammal consumption due to increased nutrient intakes. Our calculations primarily suggest that considering baseline traditional food intake rates is critical to devising reproductive dietary adjustment strategies that maximize nutrient intake while minimizing environmental contaminant exposure.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences, University of Toronto Scarborough, 1265 Military Trail, Toronto, Ontario M1C 1A4, Canada.
authors.forename: Matthew J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Binnington
authors.affiliation: Environmental Health Science and Research Bureau, Health Canada, 4908D - 269 Laurier Avenue West, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0K9, Canada.
authors.forename: Meredith S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Curren
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Ottawa, 30 Marie-Curie Private, Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6N5, Canada.
authors.forename: Hing Man
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences, University of Toronto Scarborough, 1265 Military Trail, Toronto, Ontario M1C 1A4, Canada. Electronic address: frank.wania@utoronto.ca.
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wania
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001110:Arctic Regions; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D004032:Diet / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000032:analysis / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D005260:Female; D020387:Food Chain; D006801:Humans; D007198:Indians, North American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011078:Polychlorinated Biphenyls / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D011078:Polychlorinated Biphenyls
keywords: Arctic environment; Dietary substitution; Indigenous populations; Mechanistic models; Persistent organic pollutants; Traditional foods