Relationship between Mercury Concentrations in Hair and Blood in Dene/Métis Communities of the Northwest Territories

Background: Mercury (Hg) is a global environmental pollutant as well as a growing concern to public health. Indigenous populations in the Northwest Territories (NWT) may experience elevated Hg exposures due to higher consumption rates of fish compared to the Canadian general populations. Many biomon...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Tang, Furong
Format: Master Thesis
Language:English
Published: University of Waterloo 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10012/14959
id ftunivwaterloo:oai:uwspace.uwaterloo.ca:10012/14959
record_format openpolar
spelling ftunivwaterloo:oai:uwspace.uwaterloo.ca:10012/14959 2023-05-15T17:46:32+02:00 Relationship between Mercury Concentrations in Hair and Blood in Dene/Métis Communities of the Northwest Territories Tang, Furong 2019-08-20 http://hdl.handle.net/10012/14959 en eng University of Waterloo http://hdl.handle.net/10012/14959 mercury concentration Indigenous populations Master Thesis 2019 ftunivwaterloo 2022-06-18T23:02:29Z Background: Mercury (Hg) is a global environmental pollutant as well as a growing concern to public health. Indigenous populations in the Northwest Territories (NWT) may experience elevated Hg exposures due to higher consumption rates of fish compared to the Canadian general populations. Many biomonitoring projects are conducted to estimate human health risk caused by environmental Hg exposure; blood and hair are two of the most frequently used matrices for quantifying individual and population exposures. The association between Hg concentrations in hair and blood is often assumed to be linear with a hair-to-blood Hg concentration ratio of 250. However, this ratio varies among populations, and further research is needed to explore the relationship between Hg concentrations in hair and blood in Indigenous populations of the NWT. Objective: The objectives of this study are to: 1) examine the relationship between Hg concentrations in hair and blood and the reliability of the widely accepted hair-to-blood ratio of 250 within this study population; 2) further improve the relationship by the application of Multiple Imputation (MI) and by the inclusion of covariates in the imputation model; 3) assess the effectiveness of MI for addressing missing data and data below limit of detection (LOD) from biomonitoring studies. Methods: A community-based project was designed based on consultations that began in 2014. This contaminant biomonitoring project provided baseline reference Hg levels for the Sahtu region and the Dehcho region of the Northwest Territories. Blood and hair samples were collected for Hg exposure assessments. Participants were also asked to provide basic demographic information. Simple linear regression models were used to explore the relationship between Hg concentrations in hair and blood with complete cases across communities. MI was applied to impute the missing data and the data below LOD. Results: The association between Hg concentrations in hair and blood were found to be linear within communities. ... Master Thesis Northwest Territories University of Waterloo, Canada: Institutional Repository Dehcho Region ENVELOPE(-121.350,-121.350,61.857,61.857) Northwest Territories Sahtu Region ENVELOPE(-126.852,-126.852,65.284,65.284)
institution Open Polar
collection University of Waterloo, Canada: Institutional Repository
op_collection_id ftunivwaterloo
language English
topic mercury concentration
Indigenous populations
spellingShingle mercury concentration
Indigenous populations
Tang, Furong
Relationship between Mercury Concentrations in Hair and Blood in Dene/Métis Communities of the Northwest Territories
topic_facet mercury concentration
Indigenous populations
description Background: Mercury (Hg) is a global environmental pollutant as well as a growing concern to public health. Indigenous populations in the Northwest Territories (NWT) may experience elevated Hg exposures due to higher consumption rates of fish compared to the Canadian general populations. Many biomonitoring projects are conducted to estimate human health risk caused by environmental Hg exposure; blood and hair are two of the most frequently used matrices for quantifying individual and population exposures. The association between Hg concentrations in hair and blood is often assumed to be linear with a hair-to-blood Hg concentration ratio of 250. However, this ratio varies among populations, and further research is needed to explore the relationship between Hg concentrations in hair and blood in Indigenous populations of the NWT. Objective: The objectives of this study are to: 1) examine the relationship between Hg concentrations in hair and blood and the reliability of the widely accepted hair-to-blood ratio of 250 within this study population; 2) further improve the relationship by the application of Multiple Imputation (MI) and by the inclusion of covariates in the imputation model; 3) assess the effectiveness of MI for addressing missing data and data below limit of detection (LOD) from biomonitoring studies. Methods: A community-based project was designed based on consultations that began in 2014. This contaminant biomonitoring project provided baseline reference Hg levels for the Sahtu region and the Dehcho region of the Northwest Territories. Blood and hair samples were collected for Hg exposure assessments. Participants were also asked to provide basic demographic information. Simple linear regression models were used to explore the relationship between Hg concentrations in hair and blood with complete cases across communities. MI was applied to impute the missing data and the data below LOD. Results: The association between Hg concentrations in hair and blood were found to be linear within communities. ...
format Master Thesis
author Tang, Furong
author_facet Tang, Furong
author_sort Tang, Furong
title Relationship between Mercury Concentrations in Hair and Blood in Dene/Métis Communities of the Northwest Territories
title_short Relationship between Mercury Concentrations in Hair and Blood in Dene/Métis Communities of the Northwest Territories
title_full Relationship between Mercury Concentrations in Hair and Blood in Dene/Métis Communities of the Northwest Territories
title_fullStr Relationship between Mercury Concentrations in Hair and Blood in Dene/Métis Communities of the Northwest Territories
title_full_unstemmed Relationship between Mercury Concentrations in Hair and Blood in Dene/Métis Communities of the Northwest Territories
title_sort relationship between mercury concentrations in hair and blood in dene/métis communities of the northwest territories
publisher University of Waterloo
publishDate 2019
url http://hdl.handle.net/10012/14959
long_lat ENVELOPE(-121.350,-121.350,61.857,61.857)
ENVELOPE(-126.852,-126.852,65.284,65.284)
geographic Dehcho Region
Northwest Territories
Sahtu Region
geographic_facet Dehcho Region
Northwest Territories
Sahtu Region
genre Northwest Territories
genre_facet Northwest Territories
op_relation http://hdl.handle.net/10012/14959
_version_ 1766150243848552448