Mechanistic modeling of persistent organic pollutant exposure among indigenous Arctic populations: motivations, challenges, and benefits

Abstract

Indigenous Arctic populations experience elevated exposures to many environmental contaminants compared with groups residing in southern Canada. This is largely due to consumption of traditional foods, some of which (ringed seals, beluga whales, narwhals, etc.) have relatively high concentrations of persistent organic pollutants. Models of contaminant fate, transport, and bioaccumulation represent powerful tools to explore this exposure issue, wherein combined models can be used to mechanistically and dynamically describe the entire sequence of events linking chemical emissions into the environment to ultimate contaminant concentrations in indigenous Arctic populations. In this review, various approaches adapted and applied to understanding indigenous Arctic contaminant exposure are explored, including early models describing body burdens in single traditional food species to more recent approaches holistically examining uptake and bioaccumulation in entire food chains. The applications of these models are also discussed, including attempts to (i) identify chemical properties favouring transport to, and bioaccumulation in, the Arctic; (ii) clarify the main determinants of temporal trends observed in indigenous Arctic biomonitoring; (iii) explore the impacts of permanent and temporary dietary transitions on current and future indigenous Arctic contaminant exposures; and (iv) correlate modeled early-life pollutant exposures with measured health impacts. The review demonstrates the effectiveness of mechanistic model approaches in investigating indigenous Arctic contaminant exposure, and confirms their utility in continued improvements to understanding associated risk in this unique population context.