foods and contaminants. The vast majority of participants reported eating country foods (99%) Contaminants;

Overview

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Key numbers

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• health disparities. Participants (n = 87) from a human biomonitoring study in six Dene commu­ Revised 8 July 2024
• foods and contaminants. The vast majority of participants reported eating country foods (99%) Contaminants;
• and heard that country foods had beneficial nutrients (90%). Seventy per cent of respondents had environmental health; risk
• heard or seen messages about fish with high levels of mercury, and 60% had concerns about the communication; Indigenous;
• females (56%) was slightly higher than males (44%),
• mercury exposures) were not included herein (30). The Nearly all (99%) of respondents reported consuming coun­
• Kruskal-Wallis test was used to examine associations try foods and more than one-third (38%) preferred to eat
• Notably, the opt-in framework meant fewer blood samples both. A greater percentage of females (45%) and those
• were available for analysis (and a significant proportion of living in the Sahtú (49%) preferred eating country foods
• these were under the detection limit) (26). Therefore, this than males (29%) and those living in the Dehcho (27%).
• This paper reports aggregate data for all six commu­ of eating country foods (Table 2). For example, 90% of
• a higher percentage of females (61%) than males (39%).
• community between 12% and 40%), with a portion of Seventy per cent of respondents heard advisories or mes­
• focused on health messaging and risk perceptions. As percentages of people from Dehcho (68%) and Sahtú had
• outlined in Table 1, the health messages survey was heard of advisories about fish and mercury advisories.
• Table 1. Demographics of participants from the Mackenzie Valley biomonitoring project who completed
• Sex (%Male; % Female) 45%; 55% 42%; 58% 44%; 56%
• (%Male; % Female) (50%; 50%) (35%; 65%) (43%; 57%)
• (%Male; % Female) (43; 57%) (48%; 52%) (45%; 55%)
• Table 2. Risk perception and awareness of health benefits by sex and region.
• Please indicate if you have or have not heard this message (n = 87): (%) (%) (%) (%) (%)
• had fish with high levels of mercury?”, 51% said that about concerns about country foods (Table 4). Nearly half
• fish from Ekali Lake and/or Kelly Lake. Further, 11% of should be concerned about contaminants in country
• areas where fish have high levels of mercury, including: about the quality and safety of country foods (60%).
• Where/Who Did People Hear about Fish and Mercury Advisories (n = 35)a,b
• A total of 41% indicated that they thought eating fish may the message that “eating fish contributes to a healthy,
• In contrast, as shown in Table 6, participants who
• lower hair mercury concentrations in hair (mean: 1.01
• dents of the health message survey (n = 87) are pre­
• mercury concentrations in blood (mean: 1.24 vs 0.36
• sented in Table 5. There were no significant differences
• isons by sex and region in Table 5 are underpowered The goal of this study was to examine awareness of
• Table 5. Mercury concentration in blood and hair of participants who completed the health messages survey.
• *Guideline used in the biomonitoring project (24). Blood Mercury: 8 µg/L (women of child-bearing age; children) or 20 µg/L (adult men; older women). Hair
• Table 6. Association between self-reported behaviour change and hair mercury.
• Since hearing the messages about fish and mercury (n = 59)*: Male (%) Female (%) Dehcho (%) Sahtú (%) (%)
• foods or a mix of both. The importance of country family’s health”. While 41% indicated they knew
• foods in the diets of people living in the Mackenzie enough, almost 60% indicated that they “neither

Methods (brief)

• experiences, collective concerns, knowledge), as well samples, two dietary surveys (a food frequency ques­
• foods and dietary practices. Decolonising of research cury in biological samples were published in 2022 (26).
• correlated to mercury levels in hair samples. cipating communities to collect samples and survey
• banked samples (REB 2016–0022). hension were specific to the Dehcho and Sahtú regions,
• collected on iPads using QuickTapSurvey, an app that samples for mercury
• enables offline data collection when the tablets are not Whole blood was collected from participants by local
• blood sample collection, research team members col­
• lected full-length hair samples using stainless steel scis­
• mings from the occipital region were collected into
• measured on a Milestone Direct Mercury Analyzer
• (DMA-80), were measured on the proximal 2 cm seg­
• ment of hair bundles (for long hair samples) and at least
• 30 mg of hair trimmings (for short hair samples).
• Additional details on sample collection, chemical ana­
• data collected across the six communities and the two
• Notably, the opt-in framework meant fewer blood samples both. A greater percentage of females (45%) and those
• provided at least one biological sample. Notably, regio­ country foods. As noted in the recent Arctic Monitoring
• 5th percentile <LOD 0.075 0.015 0.075 0.015 0.080

Implications

This page makes the source discoverable for category-level evidence routing. Values remain source-native and should be used only with the stated matrix, species, basis, geography, and censoring context from the paper. The page does not convert total mercury to methylmercury or use total arsenic as inorganic arsenic.

Wiki pages this source may touch

• Fish — marine, predatory (tuna, swordfish, shark, king mackerel)
• Mercury
• Mercury
• Cadmium

Verification notes

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Update history

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