Work Package 4

Human Health effects of contaminants and the influence of climate change (Work Package 4)

Work Package 4 is concerned with human health aspects of the project. Studies of the effects of contaminants on human health have been conducted in the Arctic for the past 30 years. However, owing to the different designs and focus of these studies, and the relatively small populations in the study areas, health outcomes in relation to contaminants can only be elucidated if all available data be collected and merged. Key objectives of Work Package 3 are:

• To create a database of published data concerning health effects of contaminants (persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and heavy metals) in the Arctic;
• To investigate the association between exposures to contaminants and health outcomes in the Arctic based on analyses of the data compiled in this database and dietary contaminant levels;
• Based on the outcome of the process studies in Work Package 3, to prepare estimates of future dietary exposure for the populations groups being studied in this project;
• To explore and predict effects of climate change on exposure to POPs and heavy metals and the resultant impact on human health and life styles of selected populations in the Arctic (Finland, Norway, Greenland, Russia, and Canada) and in Europe, specifically in areas of Spain and other parts of the Mediterranean and the Czech Republic.

The work will be carried out by eight partners, with Dr Arja Rautio, University of Oulu (UOULU) as leader. The other partners are the University of Tromsø (UiT), the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH), the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), Masaryk University (MUNI), the Institute Jozef Stefan (JSI), the Northwest Public Health Research Center under the Russian Ministry of Health and Sciences (SZNC), and Health Canada (HC-SC).