Project information
Arctic Health Risks: Impacts on health in the Arctic in Europe owing to climate-induced changes in contaminant cycling (ArcRisk)

Long-range transport of contaminants to the Arctic, the resulting
exposures observed in Arctic human populations, and impacts of such
exposures on human health have been the subject of considerable work in
recent years, providing a baseline against which to compare future
developments.

Global climate change has the potential to remobilise
environmental contaminants and alter contaminant transport pathways,
fate, and routes of exposure in human populations. The Arctic is
particularly sensitive to climate change and already exhibits clear
impacts. Thus, research into contaminant exposure and its effects on
human health in the Arctic, in comparison with other exposed populations
in Europe, presents an opportunity to gain insight into changes that may
later impact other areas.

The influence of climate change on contaminant spreading and
transfer and the resultant risk to human populations in the Arctic and
other areas of Europe will be studied by:

1) Research on the ways in which climate change will affect the
long-range transport and fate of selected groups of contaminants.

2) Research on the impacts that changing pathways and climatic
conditions will have on contaminant uptake and transfer within food
webs.

3) Research focusing on human health, aimed at determining how
climate-mediated changes in the environmental fate of selected groups of
contaminants will result in changes in exposure of human populations.