Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
Arctic Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland; Department of Pesticides, Menoufia University, Menoufia, Egypt.
Sci Total Environ. 2022 Jul 20;831:154793. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.154793. Epub 2022 Mar 25.
The 2021 Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) Mercury (Hg) Assessment is motivated by Arctic populations, and most notably Indigenous Peoples in the region, who are particularly vulnerable to Hg pollution. The objective of this review paper is to answer the following AMAP policy-relevant question: what is the human health impact of Hg pollution in the Arctic? In doing so, this state of the science review paper builds on information published 10 years ago in the last AMAP Hg assessment. The synthesized results demonstrate that: a) global influences (e.g., sources and transport pathways, biogeochemical processes, climate change, globalization) drive Hg exposures into human communities; b) Hg exposures are realized through dietary intake of certain country food items, and that new exposure science approaches are helping to deepen understandings; c) the nutritional and cultural benefits of country foods are immense, though a dietary transition is underway raising concerns over metabolic syndrome and broader issues of food security as well as cultural and social well-being; d) blood Hg measures are among the highest worldwide based on the results of human biomonitoring studies; e) Hg exposures are associated with adverse health outcomes across life stages (e.g., neurodevelopmental outcomes in young children to cardiovascular disease in adults); and f) risk communication needs to be balanced, targeted and clear, culturally appropriate, and be done collaboratively. These synthesized findings are particularly timely and policy-relevant given that the Minamata Convention entered into legal force worldwide in 2017 as a regulatory scheme to reduce the use and environmental release of Hg in order to protect human health and the environment. The Convention was influenced by health concerns raised by northern populations as indicated in the preamble text which makes reference to "the particular vulnerabilities of Arctic ecosystems and Indigenous communities".
2021 年北极监测与评估方案（AMAP）汞评估的动机是北极地区的人口，尤其是该地区的土著人民，他们特别容易受到汞污染的影响。本综述论文的目的是回答以下与 AMAP 政策相关的问题：汞污染对北极地区的人类健康有何影响？为此，本科学状况综述论文建立在 10 年前上一次 AMAP 汞评估中发表的信息基础上。综合结果表明：a）全球影响（如来源和传输途径、生物地球化学过程、气候变化、全球化）将汞暴露带入人类社区；b）通过食用某些国食物品摄入汞暴露，新的暴露科学方法正在帮助加深理解；c）国食物品的营养和文化益处是巨大的，尽管饮食正在发生转变，这引发了对代谢综合征和更广泛的粮食安全以及文化和社会福祉问题的关注；d）基于人体生物监测研究的结果，血液汞测量值是世界上最高的；e）汞暴露与整个生命阶段的不良健康后果有关（例如，幼儿的神经发育结果到成年人的心血管疾病）；f）风险沟通需要平衡、有针对性和清晰，要具有文化适宜性，并进行合作。鉴于 2017 年《水俣公约》在全球生效，成为减少汞使用和环境释放以保护人类健康和环境的监管计划，这些综合发现尤其及时和具有政策相关性。该公约受到北方人口提出的健康问题的影响，正如序言案文所指出的那样，这些问题提到了“北极生态系统和土著社区的特殊脆弱性”。
