Indigenous land-based approaches to well-being: The Sibi (River) program in subarctic Ontario, Canada.

The Albany River system holds a special significance for the Omushkego Cree of subarctic Ontario, Canada, embodying their cultural roots, history, and the Cree way of life and worldviews. Through the Sibi program, youth learned traditional fishing practices from Elders and on-the-land experts, gaining valuable knowledge on the land and river. The program addressed barriers to being on the land, while also creating a space for the transfer of Indigenous knowledge and revitalising community social networks. The program took place in the summer, following the Omushkego Cree's seasonal cycle and employed community-based participatory research approach. Photovoice and semi-structured interviews were used to identify elements of well-being from an Indigenous perspective. Regardless of age or experience, participants expressed positive emotions while being on the land, highlighting how strengthening social and community networks, intergenerational knowledge transfer, and fostering cultural continuity contribute to improved well-being. Program outcomes emphasize the importance of collaboration with communities to gain insights into their needs, priorities, and values, ultimately creating more sustainable and effective well-being programs. By fostering engagement and recognizing the environment's significance, sustainable and long-term solutions can be pursued to address challenges faced by communities, ultimately advancing health and well-being for both present and future generations.The Albany River system holds a special significance for the Omushkego Cree of subarctic Ontario, Canada, embodying their cultural roots, history, and the Cree way of life and worldviews. Through the Sibi program, youth learned traditional fishing practices from Elders and on-the-land experts, gaining valuable knowledge on the land and river. The program addressed barriers to being on the land, while also creating a space for the transfer of Indigenous knowledge and revitalising community social networks. The program took place in the summer, following the Omushkego Cree's seasonal cycle and employed community-based participatory research approach. Photovoice and semi-structured interviews were used to identify elements of well-being from an Indigenous perspective. Regardless of age or experience, participants expressed positive emotions while being on the land, highlighting how strengthening social and community networks, intergenerational knowledge transfer, and fostering cultural continuity contribute to improved well-being. Program outcomes emphasize the importance of collaboration with communities to gain insights into their needs, priorities, and values, ultimately creating more sustainable and effective well-being programs. By fostering engagement and recognizing the environment's significance, sustainable and long-term solutions can be pursued to address challenges faced by communities, ultimately advancing health and well-being for both present and future generations.

Characterizing variability in total mercury hair:blood ratio in the general Canadian population.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: The body burden of mercury in humans can be measured through hair or blood biomarkers. To compare results from different studies, it is often required to convert mercury in hair to an equivalent level in blood, using a default hair:blood ratio of 250:1 by the World Health Organization (WHO). However, the actual ratio may vary within and between populations. The objectives of this study were to analyze the hair:blood mercury ratio in the general Canadian population, explore factors associated with higher/lower ratios, and determine if the standard ratio of 250:1 is supported. METHODS: The Canadian Health Measures Survey (CHMS) Cycle 5 (2016-2017) measured total mercury (THg) in both hair and blood of 1168 participants 20-59 years of age. We calculated geometric mean (GM) concentrations of THg for this entire sample and subgroups. The subgroups included biological sex, women of childbearing age, race, hair treatments, categories of blood and hair selenium, urinary arsenobetaine/arsenocholine, categories of blood and hair mercury, and food consumption. We calculated a hair:blood ratio for each participant and determined population-level ratios from the GMs of the distributions. Differences by subgroups, and agreement with the WHO ratio of 250:1, were tested. The combined effect of factors on the THg hair:blood ratio was explored using staged regression analysis. RESULTS: For participants with paired hair and blood mercury measurements, the GM of the hair:blood THg ratio was 293 (95%CI:273-316), and significantly >250. In women of childbearing age, the ratio did not differ from 250. The GMs of the ratio were higher (i.e.>300) for second tertile blood selenium (365, 95%CI:307-433), third and fourth quartiles hair mercury (347, 95%CI:308-390 and 376, 95%CI:336-422), and consumers of shellfish (338, 95%CI:308-371). Shellfish consumption was the only statistically significant factor associated with the hair:blood ratio as identified in the regression model. CONCLUSIONS: The mean hair:blood THg ratio among Canadians generally exceeded the default ratio of 250:1. Higher ratios were observed in certain subgroups, such as seafood consumers, and shellfish consumption was the most important variable associated with the ratio. Our results suggest that population-specific hair:blood THg ratios be considered, if possible, when converting mercury levels from hair to blood to better characterize the variation around the conversion.

Fisher's Linear Discriminant Function Analysis and its Potential Utility as a Tool for the Assessment of Health-and-Wellness Programs in Indigenous Communities.

Diabetes mellitus is a growing public health problem affecting persons in both developed and developing nations. The prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is reported to be several times higher among Indigenous populations compared to their non-Indigenous counterparts. Discriminant function analysis (DFA) is a potential tool that can be used to quantitatively evaluate the effectiveness of Indigenous health-and-wellness programs (e.g., on-the-land programs, T2DM interventions), by creating a type of pre-and-post-program scoring system. As the communities of the Eeyou Istchee territory, subarctic Quebec, Canada, have varying degrees of isolation, we derived a DFA tool for point-of-contact evaluations to aid in monitoring and assessment of health-and-wellness programs in rural and remote locations. We developed several DFA models to discriminate between those with and without T2DM status using age, fasting blood glucose, body mass index, waist girth, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, high-density lipoprotein, triglycerides, and total cholesterol in participants from the Eeyou Istchee. The models showed a ~97% specificity (i.e., true positives for non-T2DM) in classification. This study highlights how varying risk factor models can be used to discriminate those without T2DM with high specificity among James Bay Cree communities in Canada.

Institutional Engagement Practices as Barriers to Public Health Capacity in Climate Change Policy Discourse: Lessons from the Canadian Province of Ontario.

Public health engagement in the communication, discussion, and development of climate change policies is essential for climate change policy decisions and discourse. This study examines how the existing governance approaches impact, enable, or constrain the inclusion, participation, and deliberation of public health stakeholders in the climate change policy discourse. Using the case study of the Canadian Province of Ontario, we conducted semi-structured, key informant interviews of public health (11) and non-public health (13) participants engaged in climate change policies in the province. The study results reveal that engagement and partnerships on climate change policies occurred within and across public health and non-public health organizations in Ontario. These engagements impacted public health's roles, decisions, mandate, and capacities beyond the climate change discourse; enabled access to funds, expertise, and new stakeholders; built relationships for future engagements; supported knowledge sharing, generation, and creation; and advanced public health interests in political platforms and decision making. However, public health's participation and deliberation were constrained by a fragmented sectoral approach, a lack of holistic inter-organizational structures and process, political and bureaucratic influences, irregular and unestablished communication channels for public health integration, and identities and culture focused on functions, mandates, biased ideologies, and a lack of clear commitment to engage public health. We conclude by providing practical approaches for integrating public health into climate change discourse and policymaking processes and advancing public health partnerships and collaborative opportunities.

Body burdens, sources and interrelations of selected toxic and essential elements among the nine Cree First Nations of Eeyou Istchee, James Bay region of northern Quebec, Canada.

BACKGROUND: this article constitutes a report on the comprehensive Nituuchischaayihtitaau Aschii multi-community environment-and-health study conducted among the Cree peoples (Eeyouch) of northern Quebec, Canada. OBJECTIVES: to interpret observed concentrations of a suite of chemical elements in a multi-media biological monitoring study in terms of sources and predictors. METHODS: the concentrations of 5 essential and 6 toxic chemical elements were measured in whole blood, and/or in urine or hair by ICP-MS. Concentrations of essential elements are compared to those considered normal (i.e., required for good health) and, when toxic, deemed acceptable at specified concentrations in public health guidelines. Their dependence on age, sex, the specific community lived-in and diet were explored employing multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) involving new variables generated by principle component analysis (PCA) and correspondence analysis (CA). RESULTS: the 5 most prominent PCA axes explained 67.7% of the variation, compared to 93.0% by 6 main CA factors. Concentrations of the essential elements in whole blood (WB) and iodine(i) and arsenic (As) in urine were comparable to those reported in the recent Canadian Health Measures survey and are assigned to dietary sources. By contrast, WB cadmium (Cd) was elevated even when smoking was considered. Mercury (Hg) concentrations in WB and hair were also higher in adults, although comparable to those observed for other indigenous populations living at northern latitudes. Fish consumption was identified as the prominent source. Of the 5 coastal communities, all but one had lower Hg exposures than the four inland communities, presumably reflecting the type of fish consumed. Use of firearms and smoking were correlated with WB-lead (Pb). The concentrations of both Hg and Pb increased with age and were higher in men, while WB-Cd and smoking prevalence were higher in women when considering all communities. Hg and Pb were low in children and women of reproductive age, with few exceedances of health guidelines. Although individuals with T2D had somewhat lower WB-Cd, there is some indication that Cd may potentiate renal dysfunction in this subgroup. Plots of selected CA axes grouped those elements expected to be in a normal diet and distinguished them from those with well-known unique sources (especially Hg and As in hair; and Hg, Pb and Cd in WB). CONCLUSIONS: the use of multiple biological media in conjunction with the complementary PCA and CA approaches for constructing composite variables allowed a more detailed understanding of both the sources of the essential and toxic elements in body fluids and the dependencies of their observed concentrations on age, sex, community and diet.

Metal rich particulate matter impairs acetylcholine-mediated vasorelaxation of microvessels in mice.

BACKGROUND: Exposure to PM2.5 (particulate matter<2.5 µm) has been associated with changes in endothelial function. PM2.5 was collected from two Chinese cities, Jinchang (JC) and Zhangye (ZH), both with similar PM2.5 concentrations. However, JC had levels of nickel (Ni), selenium (Se), copper (Cu), and arsenic (As) that were 76, 25, 17, and 7 fold higher than that measured in ZH, respectively. We used this unique PM sample to delineate the chemical components that drive pulmonary and systemic effects and explore the mechanism(s) by which vascular dysfunction is caused. METHODS: Male FVB/N mice received oropharyngeal aspiration of water or PM2.5 from JC, ZH or ZH spiked with one of the following elements at the same concentrations found in the JC PM (Ni=4.76; As=2.36; Se=0.24; Cu=2.43 µg/mg) followed by evaluation of markers of pulmonary and systemic inflammation. Mesenteric arteries were isolated for gene expression or functional response to various agonists (Phenylephrine, Acetylcholine, and Sodium Nitroprusside) and inhibitors (L-NAME, Apocynin, and VAS2870) ex vivo. RESULTS: Protein and total cell counts from lung lavage revealed significant pulmonary inflammation from ZH (p<0.01) and JC and ZH+NiSO4 (p<0.001) as compared to control and a significant decrease in mesenteric artery relaxation (p<0.001) and this decrease is blunted in the presence of NADPH oxidase inhibitors. Significant increases in gene expression (TNF-α, IL-6, Nos3; p<0.01; NOX4; p<0.05) were observed in JC and ZH+NiSO4, as well as significantly higher concentrations of VEGF and IL-10 (p<0.01, p<0.001; respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that the specific toxicity observed in PM from JC is likely due to the nickel component in the PM. Further, since VAS2870 was the most successful inhibitor to return vessels to baseline relaxation values, NADPH Oxidase is implicated as the primary source of PM-induced O2•-.

An evaluation of the toxicological aspects and potential doses from the inhalation of coal combustion products.

This paper reviews toxicological literature pertaining to coal combustion products (CCPs) inhalation and presents case studies on the inhalation of CCPs from the Kingston Fossil Plant area and from the Colbert Fossil Plant CCP landfill site. While most research regarding coal plant emissions focuses on fly ash, this article takes a holistic approach to examining not only emitted particulate matter such as fly ash, but also the theoretical calculated doses of landfilled CCPs. Furthermore, these doses are compared to in vitro and in vivo studies in order to highlight differences between laboratory-based studies and to emphasize the difficulty in extrapolating effects from inhalation exposures. In both case studies, fugitive emissions from the Kingston ash spill or the Colbert CCP-handling operations did not exceed any national ambient air quality standards or reference concentrations for individual components. Adverse effects such as mild pulmonary inflammation noted in the reviewed literature were in response to doses much higher than would be likely to occur in humans exposed to landfilled CCPs. We conclude that the doses for fugitive emissions calculated herein do not appear to be high enough to elicit a measurable adverse response in humans.