Hermanson Mark H, Brozowski James R
Department of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
Environ Health Perspect. 2005 Oct;113(10):1308-12. doi: 10.1289/ehp.7985.
Exposure to lead, cadmium, and mercury is known to be high in many arctic Inuit communities. These metals are emitted from industrial and urban sources, are distributed by long-range atmospheric transport to remote regions, and are found in Inuit country foods. Current community exposure to these metals can be measured in food, but feces and urine are also excellent indicators of total exposure from ingestion and inhalation because a high percentage of each metal is excreted. Bulk domestic sewage or its residue in a waste treatment system is a good substitute measure. Domestic waste treatment systems that accumulate metals in sediment provide an accurate historical record of changes in ingestion or inhalation. We collected sediment cores from an arctic lake used for facultative domestic sewage treatment to identify the history of community exposure to Pb, Cd, and Hg. Cores were dated and fluxes were measured for each metal. A nearby lake was sampled to measure combined background and atmospheric inputs, which were subtracted from sewage lake data. Pb, Cd, and Hg inputs from sewage grew rapidly after the onset of waste disposal in the late 1960s and exceeded the rate of population growth in the contributing community from 1970 to 1990. The daily per-person Pb input in 1990 (720,000 ng/person per day) exceeded the tolerable daily intake level. The Cd input (48,000 ng/person per day) and Hg input (19,000 ng/person per day) were below the respective TDI levels at the time.
众所周知，许多北极因纽特社区的铅、镉和汞暴露水平很高。这些金属来自工业和城市源，通过远距离大气传输扩散到偏远地区，并存在于因纽特人的传统食物中。目前社区对这些金属的暴露可以在食物中进行测量，但粪便和尿液也是摄入和吸入总暴露的极佳指标，因为每种金属的排泄率都很高。生活污水总量或其在废物处理系统中的残留物是一种很好的替代测量方法。在沉积物中积累金属的生活废物处理系统提供了摄入或吸入变化的准确历史记录。我们从一个用于兼性生活污水处理的北极湖泊采集了沉积物岩芯，以确定社区对铅、镉和汞的暴露历史。对岩芯进行了年代测定，并测量了每种金属的通量。对附近的一个湖泊进行了采样，以测量综合背景和大气输入，然后从污水湖数据中减去这些数据。20世纪60年代末开始进行废物处理后，污水中的铅、镉和汞输入迅速增加，1970年至1990年期间超过了贡献社区的人口增长率。1990年每人每天的铅输入量（720,000纳克/人/天）超过了每日可耐受摄入量水平。当时镉输入量（48,000纳克/人/天）和汞输入量（19,000纳克/人/天）低于各自的每日可耐受摄入量水平。
