Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, Université de Montréal, 2375 chemin de la Cote-Sainte-Catherine, Montreal, QC, H3T 1A8, Canada.
Université de Montréal Public Health Research Institute (IRSPUM), Université de Montréal, 7101, Parc Ave., Montreal, QC, H3N 1X7, Canada.
J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol. 2019 Sep;29(5):613-623. doi: 10.1038/s41370-019-0144-3. Epub 2019 May 14.
Northeastern British Columbia (Canada) is an area of intense natural gas exploitation by hydraulic fracturing. Hydraulic fracturing can release contaminants, including trace metals, many of which are known developmental toxicants. To date, there is limited data on human exposure to contaminants in this region.
We aimed to examine trace metals in urine and hair samples from 29 Indigenous and non-Indigenous pregnant women from two communities (Chetwynd and Dawson Creek) in Northeastern British Columbia.
We recruited 29 pregnant women who provided spot urine samples over five consecutive days and one hair sample. We measured 19 trace metals in pooled urine samples from each participant and in the first 2 cm of hair closest to the scalp. We compared urinary and hair concentrations to those measured in women from the general population using data from the Canadian Health Measure Survey (CHMS), or reference values found in the literature for trace metals not measured in the CHMS.
Median urinary (0.49 μg/L) and hair (0.16 μg/g) concentrations of manganese were higher in our participants than in the CHMS (<0.05 µg/L in urine) or reference population (0.067 μg/g in hair). In hair, median values for barium (4.48 μg/g), aluminum (4.37 μg/g) and strontium (4.47 μg/g) were respectively 16, 3, and 6 times higher compared with median values in a reference population. Concentrations of barium and strontium in hair were higher in self-identified Indigenous participants (5.9 and 5.46 μg/g, respectively) compared to non-Indigenous participants (3.88 and 2.60 μg/g) (p-values = 0.02 and 0.03).
Our results suggest higher gestational exposure to certain trace metals in our study population compared to reference populations.
加拿大不列颠哥伦比亚省东北部是一个天然气开采活动密集的地区，采用水力压裂法开采。水力压裂可能会释放出污染物，包括痕量金属，其中许多都是已知的发育毒物。迄今为止，该地区关于人类接触污染物的相关数据有限。
我们旨在检测来自不列颠哥伦比亚省东北部两个社区（切特温德和道森克里克）的 29 名土著和非土著孕妇的尿液和头发样本中的痕量金属。
我们招募了 29 名孕妇，她们在连续 5 天内提供了点尿样，并采集了一份头发样本。我们测量了每位参与者的混合尿液样本以及距头皮最近的头发生长的前 2 厘米处的 19 种痕量金属。我们将尿液和头发中的浓度与加拿大健康测量调查（CHMS）中一般人群的测量值或 CHMS 中未测量的痕量金属的文献参考值进行比较。
与 CHMS（尿液中 <0.05 µg/L）或参考人群（头发中 0.067 µg/g）相比，参与者的尿液（中位数 0.49 µg/L）和头发（中位数 0.16 µg/g）中的锰浓度更高。头发中钡（4.48 µg/g）、铝（4.37 µg/g）和锶（4.47 µg/g）的中位数值分别比参考人群高 16、3 和 6 倍。自我认定的土著参与者（5.9 和 5.46 µg/g）的头发中钡和锶浓度高于非土著参与者（3.88 和 2.60 µg/g）（p 值分别为 0.02 和 0.03）。
与参考人群相比，我们的研究人群在妊娠期间接触某些痕量金属的情况更为严重。
