TY - JOUR
T1 - A Community-Based Health Risk Assessment Following the Gold King Mine Spill
T2 - Results from the Gold King Mine Spill Diné Exposure Project
AU - Van Horne, Yoshira Ornelas
AU - Chief, Karletta
AU - Charley, Perry H.
AU - Begay, Mae Gilene
AU - Lothrop, Nathan
AU - Canales, Robert A
AU - Beamer, Paloma
N1 - Funding Information: This work was supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS P50ES026089, EPA R83615, R21ES026948), the University of Arizona Superfund Research Program (NIEHSP42 ES004940), Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Center (NIEHS P30ES006694, T32 ES007091), Center for American Indian Resilience P20MD006872, and the Agnese Nelms Haury Foundation. This publication’s contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. Publisher Copyright: © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - The Gold King Mine Spill (GKMS) disaster resulted in three million gallons of acid mine drainage-containing arsenic and lead being released into a tributary of the San Juan River. The San Juan River flows through the Navajo Nation and the Diné (Navajo) rely on this river for a variety of purposes lending to unique exposure pathways. We administered questionnaires in three Navajo communities in collaboration with the Navajo Nation Community Health Representatives to obtain frequency and duration data on 43 activities (e.g., praying with river water, fishing from the river). These activities were utilized to conduct a community-based probabilistic risk assessment from exposure to arsenic (As) and lead at three different time points (i.e., pre-GKMS, peak-GKMS, and post-GKMS) for four different exposure scenarios: (1) recreational, (2) cultural, (3) dietary, and (4) aggregate. The aggregate scenario combines exposure from engaging in recreational, cultural, and dietary related activities. Utilizing the Lifeline Community-Based Assessment Software ™ distributions were incorporated for different exposure factors (e.g., hand-to-mouth contacts, transfer efficiency) along with Diné-specific activities (e.g., using the sediment as sunscreen) to estimate dose. The estimated lead and arsenic (As) hazard quotients (HQs) for the recreational, cultural, and dietary scenario for all time points were less than one, indicating no excess non-cancer risks. Only the dietary scenario resulted in an excess cancer risk, with less than 1% of the simulated estimates exceeding the 1 × 10–04 cancer risk guideline from exposure to arsenic through the dietary scenario (e.g., consuming fish from the San Juan River) at all time points. This risk assessment is the first to incorporate the unique exposure pathways of the Diné people following the GKMS and highlights the need to incorporate community-specific pathways during the risk analysis process.
AB - The Gold King Mine Spill (GKMS) disaster resulted in three million gallons of acid mine drainage-containing arsenic and lead being released into a tributary of the San Juan River. The San Juan River flows through the Navajo Nation and the Diné (Navajo) rely on this river for a variety of purposes lending to unique exposure pathways. We administered questionnaires in three Navajo communities in collaboration with the Navajo Nation Community Health Representatives to obtain frequency and duration data on 43 activities (e.g., praying with river water, fishing from the river). These activities were utilized to conduct a community-based probabilistic risk assessment from exposure to arsenic (As) and lead at three different time points (i.e., pre-GKMS, peak-GKMS, and post-GKMS) for four different exposure scenarios: (1) recreational, (2) cultural, (3) dietary, and (4) aggregate. The aggregate scenario combines exposure from engaging in recreational, cultural, and dietary related activities. Utilizing the Lifeline Community-Based Assessment Software ™ distributions were incorporated for different exposure factors (e.g., hand-to-mouth contacts, transfer efficiency) along with Diné-specific activities (e.g., using the sediment as sunscreen) to estimate dose. The estimated lead and arsenic (As) hazard quotients (HQs) for the recreational, cultural, and dietary scenario for all time points were less than one, indicating no excess non-cancer risks. Only the dietary scenario resulted in an excess cancer risk, with less than 1% of the simulated estimates exceeding the 1 × 10–04 cancer risk guideline from exposure to arsenic through the dietary scenario (e.g., consuming fish from the San Juan River) at all time points. This risk assessment is the first to incorporate the unique exposure pathways of the Diné people following the GKMS and highlights the need to incorporate community-specific pathways during the risk analysis process.
KW - Diné (Navajo)
KW - Disaster
KW - Environment
KW - Gold King Mine Spill
KW - Indigenous health
KW - Risk assessment
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U2 - 10.1007/s12403-023-00583-8
DO - 10.1007/s12403-023-00583-8
M3 - Article
SN - 2451-9766
JO - Exposure and Health
JF - Exposure and Health
ER -