Heavy Metals in California Women Living in a Gold Mining-Impacted Community

Julie Von Behren, Ruiling Liu, Jane Sellen, Christine N. Duffy, Ryszard Gajek, Key-Young Choe, Josephine DeGuzman, M. Katy Janes, Joanne Hild and Peggy Reynolds
Additional contact information
Julie Von Behren: Cancer Prevention Institute of California, Fremont, CA 94538, USA
Ruiling Liu: Cancer Prevention Institute of California, Fremont, CA 94538, USA
Jane Sellen: Sierra Streams Institute, Nevada City, CA 95959, USA
Christine N. Duffy: Cancer Prevention Institute of California, Fremont, CA 94538, USA
Ryszard Gajek: Environmental Health Laboratory, California Department of Public Health, Richmond, CA 94804, USA
Key-Young Choe: Environmental Health Laboratory, California Department of Public Health, Richmond, CA 94804, USA
Josephine DeGuzman: Environmental Health Laboratory, California Department of Public Health, Richmond, CA 94804, USA
M. Katy Janes: Sierra Streams Institute, Nevada City, CA 95959, USA
Joanne Hild: Sierra Streams Institute, Nevada City, CA 95959, USA
Peggy Reynolds: Cancer Prevention Institute of California, Fremont, CA 94538, USA

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 13, 1-10

Abstract: Gold mining activities occurred throughout the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California, leaving behind persistent toxic contaminants in the soil, dust, and water that include arsenic and cadmium. Despite a high level of concern among local residents about potential exposure and high breast cancer rates, no biomonitoring data has been collected to evaluate the levels of heavy metals. We conducted a study to characterize the urinary levels of heavy metals among women in this region by working with the community in Nevada County. Sixty women provided urine samples and completed a questionnaire. We examined levels of arsenic, cadmium, and other metals in relation to the length of residency in the area, age, dietary factors, recreational activities, and smoking. We compared urinary metal levels in participants to levels in the United States National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Overall, study participants had higher urinary levels of arsenic than women in the national sample. Cadmium levels were similar to the national average, although they were elevated in women ≥35 years who had lived in the region for 10 years or more. Arsenic levels were higher among women who smoked, ate fish, ate home-grown produce, and who reported frequent hiking or trail running, although these differences were not statistically significant. This study established a successful community–research partnership, which facilitated community dialogue about possible human health consequences of living in a mining-impacted area.

Keywords: arsenic; cadmium; heavy metals; gold mining; California (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/13/2252/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/13/2252/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:13:p:2252-:d:242964

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().