Northern contaminant program

If your project received funds in , please enter those amounts in the cells provided. Please indicate other funding sources in Budget Table 3. Other funding sources include in-kind contributions such as staff salaries, services, facilities, and operating funds as well as the estimated value, status, and source of other known or potential contributions to the project e.

The following provides further detail on the Classes of Expenditures that are to be used in the budget tables. This category includes wages of people hired specifically for the project i. This category includes equipment and supplies that are specifically purchased, leased or developed for the particular project, rentals, and other analytical costs.

Use this category for all proposed expenditures associated with the COVID pandemic, including additional and incremental expenses, such as logistics e. Other costs include miscellaneous costs such as office supplies and operating expenses e. Costs that do not fit in any of the above categories are included here. All administrative expenses associated with the project activity may be included in this category. This may include, for example, payroll or accounting services.

These Guidelines provide direction to project leaders and scientists for planning communications, and in developing research agreements with communities see Appendix C. The Regional Contaminants Committees will determine the appropriate engagement needed for projects in their regions, but there is recognition that not all projects require the same level of engagement e.

With this difference in mind, the following is a guideline for minimum levels of engagement required. The RCCs may recommend further engagement in addition to the minimum. This assures the NCP that the community engagement for any particular proposed project is satisfactory. For instance, a project that intends to sample at a remote location may require engagement with the appropriate Indigenous organization s represented on the NCP Management Committee Council of Yukon First Nations, Dene Nation, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and with the relevant land claim rights-holder organization.

A project to be conducted within or near a community will require community engagement with a community-level organization. Even if project members stop only briefly in a community en route to a sampling site, community engagement may still be required. In addition, projects involving the use of archived samples may also require community engagement since the proposed use may differ from that which had been originally approved.

Such cases will be advised by the appropriate RCC on an individual basis. Note that the Regional Contaminants Committees and Indigenous partners that help govern the Northern Contaminants Program do not complete engagement forms, but can help guide applicants to the appropriate organizations and communities where they are required. The steps involved in the Northern Contaminants Program NCP proposal review process are described in the following subsections. Submitted proposals are distributed to one of five review teams.

The review teams are comprised of representatives from northern organizations, other government departments, academia, and other areas of expertise. These teams are:. They assess relevance by reviewing how the proposal addresses the priority areas identified in the relevant NCP Blueprint and other NCP strategic priorities, using the criteria in Table 4. All proposals undergo a technical review. This review covers the scientific expertise of the project team, the clarity and scope of objectives, the adequacy of methodology, suitability of project design, and appropriateness of time frame and budget.

Proposals are rated and ranked and operational and funding recommendations are made to the NCP Management Committee. Proposals for new projects submitted under the Environmental Monitoring and Research, and Human Health subprograms will undergo an external peer review. Other review teams may request an additional external peer review, for example if more technical expertise is required.

Upon receipt of the external peer reviews, the teams are reconvened to take the reviews into account and finalize their recommendations to the NCP Management Committee. This review assesses aspects in the proposal such as communications, northern priorities, capacity building and training, Indigenous Knowledge, and northern consultation. Each proposal is rated, and recommendations are made to the NCP Management Committee on funding and how the proposals could be improved in these areas.

Does the project address a question that is important to Northerners? Note: Proposal must also meet a priority outlined in the Blueprints. Have the relevant communities been consulted on how Indigenous Knowledge could be incorporated into the project?

Regional Contaminants Committees will provide a review of each proposal that is relevant to their region, using the above criteria as guidance. In some case, funding approval may be conditional on specific follow-up. Completion of this checklist ensures that the applicant has read and understood the NCP proposal requirements. The total amounts of funding available in the Human Health subprogram through this call for proposals in the , , and fiscal years, after considering multi-year funding commitments, are shown in Table 1.

Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme , and providing critical information to support international conventions, such as the United Nations Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, and Minamata Convention on Mercury. Northern Contaminants Program-funded research and monitoring has shown elevated concentrations of persistent organic pollutants POPs and metals, such as mercury and lead, in human samples i.

This research shows that the primary source of exposure for many of these contaminants is the consumption of country foods. Epidemiological and toxicological studies in Canada and elsewhere have found that at certain concentrations these contaminants are toxic to humans. The most recent assessment of contaminants and human health in the Canadian Arctic CACAR provided key conclusions from research supported by the NCP as well as externally funded research and identified a number of knowledge gaps.

Doing so will strengthen the links between these subprograms and ensure that knowledge gained on contaminants in the ecosystem is transferred to the assessment of human health risks. In order to place human chemical concentrations in a health risk assessment context, there is a need for tools to interpret biomonitoring data.

For example, there are only a few substances for which direct relationships between human chemical concentrations and health effects have been established. For lead and mercury, intervention guidelines were established on the basis of studies that directly related blood levels with health effects. Prospective biomonitoring programs should be designed to build on pre-existing biomonitoring data and provide for periodic re-sampling approximately 4 to 6-year sampling period. These biomonitoring studies have informed where and how human exposures to contaminants are changing and have also allowed an assessment of the effectiveness of international agreements.

Understanding that there are many demands placed on their limited resources, northern health authorities can gauge their level of involvement based on internal capacity and interest.

Their participation aligns with the desire of Northerners to conduct their own research in the North and allows project leaders to more easily encourage community engagement in the projects. Having the northern health authorities involved in the biomonitoring component will ensure that any important health, dietary or contaminant issues that may arise will be addressed for the communities in the most appropriate health context.

The objective of NCP human biomonitoring is to provide as complete coverage of each northern region as possible to fill regional gaps in data and develop time trends to allow ongoing insight on the changing relationship between contaminant exposures and human health outcomes.

Ultimately, these studies, in conjunction with monitoring results from the Environmental Monitoring and Research subprogram, provide crucial information for the NCP that will help with the implementation of international agreements such as the Stockholm Convention and the Minamata Convention. In addition, data from these biomonitoring studies using this standardized approach can be used to inform local health authorities of the general health status of northern populations from a contaminants perspective.

The overarching goal of NCP human biomonitoring is to characterize exposures of Arctic and northern Indigenous populations to contaminants, and to create time trends and fill regional gaps; however, this does not preclude the NCP from adjusting the schedule to address targeted biomonitoring if the need arises.

The planning process should not be underestimated and usually requires at least one year to prepare a comprehensive proposal. The proposal should set the general requirements for the project, including recruitment strategy, sample size and frequency a position paper on these components was prepared by Health Canada Footnote 1 , dietary assessment, collection of demographic information through questionnaires, contaminants to be measured, laboratory capacity, data analysis, and reporting of results.

The resources required to develop appropriate tools and documents to disseminate the results of human health studies should be included in project proposals.

Seed funding may be used to support travel and facilitate meetings in northern communities with all of these key potential partners.

Seed funding may also be used for preparatory work on research design, survey development or other pertinent preliminary work. Seed funding will be of a limited amount and will be scaled according to the scope of the proposed biomonitoring work.

In addition, seed funding will be provided for one year only. Applicants who receive seed funding are not guaranteed to receive long-term funding for future biomonitoring work and must submit proposals for subsequent years of funding.

The NCP has identified key target populations for human biomonitoring. Early biomonitoring studies focused on pregnant women in order to obtain information on potential health impacts for the unborn child, recent studies have included both genders and all adult age groups to obtain a better understanding of human exposures across the Canadian Arctic. Therefore, the priority populations for biomonitoring studies under the NCP are presented as follows, in order of importance:.

Pregnant women and women of child-bearing age are the highest priority due to the sensitivity of the developing fetus to contaminant exposure. Maternal trends that are not confounded by the sampling medium or differing study design can be determined through the continued sampling of maternal blood using prior protocols. Children are the next priority for biomonitoring studies as they have been found to have relatively high concentrations of some contaminants.

Due to the persistent, bioaccumulative nature of legacy POPs, older adults may also have higher concentrations in fluids and tissues due to cumulative lifetime exposure, especially from exposure prior to the phase-out of these legacy POPs.

Due to the effort, cost and value associated with the collection of samples from participants in biomonitoring studies e. This will allow for the opportunity to conduct additional analyses, as per the policies associated with any given biobank. The chemicals of interest for the core biomonitoring program have been prioritized into two general groups: Schedule A and Schedule B contaminants see sections below and Appendix A.

Effort should be made to coordinate the biomonitoring of these chemicals of interest under the Human Health subprogram with those monitored within the Environmental Monitoring and Research subprogram. Contaminants proposed for analysis should be delivered to the North primarily through long range transport and not from local sources.

Full speciation of metals is important for interpreting the result of biomonitoring data and assessing the risk associated with these exposures. For some data poor contaminants e. These advances in methodology make it more feasible to analyse a broader suite of chemicals in biomonitoring studies.

It is recommended that biomonitoring studies should also investigate chemicals that northern populations are exposed to through local use and exposure e. However, applicants are expected to seek alternate funding sources for these analyses. Nutrients should be included in these biomonitoring studies. While selenium is not listed as a chemical of concern under Appendix A , dietary intake of selenium is relevant to the health of northern populations and to understanding contaminant interactions, and should, therefore, continue to be measured as part of NCP funded Health Research.

The purpose of conducting dietary exposure assessments is to provide an up-to-date estimate of the amount of contaminants consumed in the diet of Northerners, and to gain information about dietary habits through traditional e. These estimates of dietary exposure can then be compared with guidelines for safe levels of contaminant exposure i.

Dietary transitions need to be taken into consideration when reviewing these results. It may be necessary to conduct additional dietary exposure studies to take into account current exposure patterns.

Dietary exposure assessments, particularly the food choice and dietary surveys, should be carried out in parallel with human biomonitoring studies. This will allow valuable comparisons of dietary exposure assessments to measured contaminant concentrations in human samples and will facilitate the development of effective dietary intervention strategies. The assessment of contaminant exposure needs to be coupled with an assessment of nutrient intake, which is essential for evaluating dietary risks and benefits.

Food choice studies will also provide information about the factors affecting the dietary choices of Northerners and the perception of contaminants in making those choices. The NCP recognizes that plastic and microplastic pollution is an emerging issue that requires further research in order to fully assess potential risks to human health.

While human exposure to microplastics may occur through air, water and food, determining the impact on human health first requires more quantitative information about the occurrence of microplastics in potential sources of human exposure.

As such, the NCP is taking a stepwise research approach that focuses first on expanding knowledge on the occurrence of microplastics in the environment, including where they may be relevant to human exposure. For example, research is needed on the occurrence of microplastics in animals traditionally consumed by Northerners.

At this time, the NCP is not considering funding human health studies on plastics. The focus of the health effects element is the study of the interactions and effects of contaminants on human biological systems through investigations based on measurable determinants of health.

The desired outcome is to reduce the current burden of environmentally-related disease, and to minimize environmental health risk across all life stages by addressing single and multiple chemical exposures. Investigative techniques could include epidemiological, laboratory-based toxicological and relevant toxicogenomic studies. The importance of support for these studies and engagement from regional health authorities, communities and Indigenous organizations is critical, especially for disseminating the results of these types of studies.

Biomarkers have the potential to provide an early detection system for health conditions that may develop later in life or can help address epidemiological issues that cannot be investigated directly because of low sample numbers. Research that focuses on biomarker development, however, is beyond the scope of the NCP. Any work with biomarkers funded through the NCP should be integrated within an epidemiological or toxicological study and should demonstrate that a gap in NCP work will be filled by the research.

Convincing arguments need to be made by project applicants regarding the relevance of these biomarker studies to the Arctic and northern human context. In order for a project to be considered for funding, the chosen biomarkers should demonstrate a link to clinical health effects or health outcomes currently or potentially afflicting Arctic and northern Indigenous peoples. Similarly, a relationship needs to be established between such health effects and contaminants.

Human genomics has received much attention in recent years and has been raised as a potentially beneficial area of research related to the effects of contaminants. Identifying the molecular mechanisms behind the contaminant effects observed in Arctic and northern Indigenous peoples could be a useful approach to clarifying how contaminants affect the human body. Genomics research has the ability to identify the molecular mechanisms associated with certain chemically related exposures at a very early stage and possibly uncover new biomarkers of toxicity.

Proposed projects must use existing, well-validated genomic methods. The population is exposed to a mixture of contaminants rather than individual chemicals. NCP-funded toxicological studies have investigated not only the health effects of individual contaminants but also the effects of mixtures that mimic the exposure profile of highly exposed Northerners.

Early results demonstrate that the effects of the mixtures are not necessarily the same as those expected from studies of the effects of individual chemicals and that interactions occur among contaminants.

Lifestyle factors may also influence the health effects of contaminants. For example, a high percentage of pregnant women report smoking during pregnancy in northern Indigenous communities. In such cases, a host of other chemical contaminants may contribute to or mitigate the effects of prenatal exposure to environmental contaminant mixtures. There are a number of factors that applicants must consider to ensure that studies of effects funded by the NCP are relevant in the Arctic and northern human context.

Researchers are required to provide a brief but strong rationale justifying their choices with respect to each of the points below and especially their relevance in the Arctic and northern human context:. Health effects studies should take into account co-exposure to mixture of chemicals and factors likely to modulate vulnerability of exposed individuals.

For example, interactions between methyl mercury and selenium should be investigated, as well as whether health effects are resulting from high concentrations of contaminants e. It is expected that results from current and previous biomonitoring studies such as the Inuit Health Survey and the Nunavik Child Development Study will be used to guide future pathways and effects research.

The following sections provide further guidance on pathways and effects research priorities for the NCP. The ability to determine and compare benefits and risks is a key component of the NCP and a current focus of the Human Health subprogram.

Standard risk assessment methodologies used to assess the potential risks to human health of various contaminants are, in general, well known and have been used for many years.

These benefits pertain to overall well-being and can be nutritional, physical, social, spiritual and economic, whereas the risks focus on the narrower questions of toxicity and potential health effects.

It is, therefore, very difficult to evaluate the benefits against the risks, or vice versa, and considerably more research is required in this area. Additionally, increased knowledge of local risk perception and how people make dietary choices is necessary to determine an effective way to decrease barriers to message comprehension. More research is needed in determining best practices for risk communication such as the use of social media and their effectiveness in an Arctic context.

Studies that include risk communication activities with affected communities should include follow-up work that evaluates the effectiveness of those risk communication activities. The complexity of evaluation study should not be underestimated.

It may be a component of a study, or a stand-alone study on its own, with input and participation from regional health authorities, communities and Indigenous organizations. This may require special communication efforts to pregnant women and women of child-bearing age.

Plastic pollution projects should now focus their requests on the available funding in New proposals should address the research priorities outlined in this Blueprint. Also, cooperation and collaboration between core monitoring and research project leaders is encouraged. The total amounts of funding available in the Environmental Monitoring and Research subprogram through this call for proposals in the , , and fiscal years after considering multi-year funding commitments are shown in Table 1.

Priorities for monitoring and research are described separately for the Atmosphere and three major ecosystem types: Terrestrial, Freshwater, and Marine. By concentrating monitoring and research on focal ecosystems, the NCP hopes to develop detailed conceptual models of contaminant dynamics in these ecosystems. Monitoring plans have been designed for optimal detection of temporal trends and to build on ongoing monitoring projects, with robust time series datasets and sample archives.

Research priorities are designed to improve our understanding of contaminant-related ecological risks, including: how contaminants enter Arctic ecosystems and cycle within them, how contaminant cycling is influenced by environmental change and the resulting effects on biological exposure, and the combined biological effects of contaminants and climate change on Arctic wildlife. Additional monitoring activity is being planned in cooperation with the Human Health subprogram and regional health authorities.

Doing so will strengthen the links between the three subprograms and ensure that knowledge about contaminants in Arctic ecosystems will be transferred to the assessment of human health risks.

It is important that researchers recognize the link between contaminants in wildlife and human health, especially when monitoring and research is being carried out on species that are frequently harvested by Indigenous communities. The link to human health should be reflected in proposals, and especially in sections related to engagement and communications where regional health authorities have an important role.

Annual analysis of CEAC, i. Found in even the most remote environments, plastic pollution of various size ranges, including microplastic pollution continues to establish itself as a global concern, although there is currently very limited data for the Arctic environment.

Compared to known and monitored POPs, plastic pollution, and specifically microplastics appear to exhibit similar characteristics of persistence and bioaccumulation in some species.

Given that plastic pollution is comprised of dozens of polymers and additives, studies to date indicate that microplastics can act as delivery vectors for chemical contaminant exposure, making them a potential exposure risk to Arctic ecosystems and possibly people. The NCP is taking a stepwise approach to assessing microplastics in the Canadian Arctic as outlined in section 7.

These regional priorities are specified under Section 7. The Arctic is a remote environment, far from major emission sources, with environmental characteristics that make it particularly sensitive to long-range contamination by POPs and heavy metals. Similarly, the identification of new chemical contaminants in the environment provides an indication of possible future risks to human health and may lead to preliminary screening of human tissues e. The successful implementation of international conventions to reduce contaminant emissions is the best method available for reducing contaminant exposure of humans and ecosystems in the Arctic.

Each of these international and global agreements have requirements for ongoing monitoring and research, with a particular need for Arctic data and information. Results from NCP monitoring and research will be particularly important for the global monitoring plan established under the Stockholm Convention and being proposed within the Minamata Convention, and for periodic effectiveness evaluations of both Conventions.

One of the main objectives of monitoring contaminants in the Arctic is to assess how the environment is responding to actions taken under the Stockholm and Minamata Conventions and to assess the effectiveness of those actions.

Because the Arctic accumulates contaminants primarily from long-range transport, monitoring data on new chemicals in the Arctic are regarded as critical evidence when assessing the need to add new substances to the Stockholm Convention.

The NCP works very closely with AMAP and other Arctic nations on circumpolar collaborative monitoring and research activities, as well as on the preparation of scientific assessments.

Further information can be found on the AMAP website amap. Thus, it is highly encouraged that NCP project leaders and teams participate in circumpolar monitoring networks and collaborations with other Arctic nations on NCP and AMAP priority research is encouraged. Interpreting temporal variability in monitoring data and explaining the potential causal influence of global contaminant emissions and their sources can be very difficult.

Contaminant concentrations in environmental media may be influenced by numerous factors in addition to global emission sources. For example, environmental changes brought on by climate shifts have been shown to influence temporal trends of contaminant levels quite dramatically. For instance, discerning the sources anthropogenic or natural and understanding the dynamic processes responsible for contaminant uptake and accumulation in Arctic food webs presents a particular challenge to the interpretation of trends in mercury.

Source apportionment and consideration of changing environmental processes e. Levels of contaminants reported in Arctic wildlife can exceed reported thresholds for effects that were established mainly through laboratory-based dosing studies. As already noted, climate change can influence contaminant pathways and processes that will result in modulating levels of exposure among Arctic wildlife.

Wildlife are also being put under increasing stress because of climate-related changes in their environment and in food webs that may make them more vulnerable to the potential risks posed by exposure to contaminants. Comparison of tissue residues to published guidelines and thresholds for effects will continue to be an important aspect of NCP assessment reports; however, it is recognized that these comparisons are of limited value given the lack of thresholds developed specifically for Arctic species.

The direct investigation of toxic effects in Arctic wildlife i. Submission of research proposals that address these gaps are encouraged, however new methods for effects assessment need to be well supported by proof of concept work and information from the scientific literature.

Depending on the size and type, plastic pollution can travel long distances through the atmosphere, rivers, and oceans. In addition, depending on the polymer type and additives, plastic pollution can be extremely persistent in the environment, accumulate in some marine organisms, and can be transferred from prey to predator, properties typically associated with POPs. It has been demonstrated that microplastics can act as vectors for chemical contaminant exposure, therefore, plastic pollution represents a direct exposure risk to Arctic ecosystems and people from the plastic polymer itself as well as posing potential risks due to contaminants that are attracted to and adsorbed by plastic from the ambient environment, though more data are needed on these latter topics.

The NCP began assessing microplastics as long-range pollutants in the Canadian Arctic in , focussing on measuring the presence and spatial distribution of microplastics in the marine environment via water samples, and evaluating long-range atmospheric transport through measurements in Arctic air.

These continue to be priorities, along with additional measurements in the abiotic environment, invertebrates, fish and wildlife. The assessment of plastic pollution in seabirds has been supported by the NCP since through projects that built on the Environmental Monitoring and Research core monitoring program for seabirds. Information on plastic ingestion in invertebrates, fish and mammals is now also available, although detailed studies remain relatively sparse.

The NCP is also seeking baseline information on the presence, spatial distribution, abundance and types of plastic pollution in freshwater and terrestrial environments in order to comprehensively understand plastic pollution throughout the Northern and Arctic environments of Canada. Standard protocols and approaches for research and monitoring plastics in the North are being developed by AMAP in order to standardize the collection of baseline information.

NCP encourages projects to implement and adapt these approaches and harmonized protocols to ensure that information on plastic pollution data is comparable across the pan-Arctic region, and with other global monitoring initiatives.

To the greatest extent possible, NCP monitoring and research projects must be carried out in cooperation and collaboration with northern communities, which should begin in the planning stage of the research. Pre-engagement prior to the initiation of any proposal is highly encouraged. In the case of wildlife sampling, collections should be carried out in association with regular community harvesting. In cases where harvesting may have been limited because of concerns regarding regional population numbers e.

The project leaders must provide results to the appropriate RCCs for review before disseminating any contaminant-related or health results and information to communities.

If results indicate that any contaminants or other health indicators in wildlife are a concern or risk to the health of Northerners, regional and territorial health authorities should be consulted in conjunction with the RCCs before any information is communicated to communities to avoid miscommunication regarding food safety issues.

This might, for example, include the documentation of observations made through the course of sampling and related to the state of individual specimens being collected and the environment from which they are collected, including the Global Positioning System GPS coordinates of the sampling location.

These observations must be reported and the information attributed to the individual that provided it. Project leaders are encouraged to develop projects under the Community-Based Monitoring and Research Subprogram where possible and participate when proposals are led or co-led by local partners in Northern communities.

Community-Based Monitoring and Research projects often utilize Indigenous Knowledge and can complement and enhance Environmental Monitoring and Research projects. Monitoring contaminant levels in the atmosphere over the Arctic continues to be a priority under the NCP. Data collected since will be used to evaluate temporal trends of atmospheric input of contaminants and to monitor current source regions and validate global long-range transport models. Another priority for atmospheric monitoring will continue to be measuring new substances that demonstrate a reasonable probability of Arctic contamination as a result of long-range transport.

Since , the NCP has expanded the air monitoring network with the addition of 7 passive monitoring stations distributed across all 5 Arctic regions. This expansion will be extremely valuable in providing a more geographically complete picture of atmospheric contamination, including POPs and mercury, and assessing global transport pathways and sources.

ArcticNet , should be employed to evaluate global atmospheric pathways and potential sources associated with the trends observed at Alert and Little Fox Lake. Models may also be used to provide more detailed information on atmospheric contaminant distribution and deposition across the Canadian Arctic.

These efforts should now be enhanced by integration of data from the 7 new passive monitoring stations being incorporated into the NCP air monitoring network. Snow is also collected at some air monitoring sites to assess deposition of contaminants in precipitation, which is an important pathway for contaminants to terrestrial, freshwater, and marine systems.

This means that the NCP and its researchers must develop links between their own particular field of contaminants research and other fields of Arctic science. This interdisciplinary approach must include natural and social sciences as well as community-based monitoring and traditional knowledge.

NCP scientists are encouraged to develop these links in their projects. Questions related to climate change and the influence it may have on contaminant pathways, processes and effects are being addressed by the NCP; however, this can only be done in cooperation with other programs that address issues related to climate change. Similarly there are benefits to coordinating NCP activities related to human health and communications with related programs dealing with climate change impacts and adaptation with Arctic communities e.

The NCP has also encouraged northern Aboriginal organizations to participate actively in Arctic science initiatives and to help build Arctic science capacity in these organizations.

This has had a direct effect on the development of national and international Arctic science and environmental policy. INC-1 through 4. As a result, Canada has received accolades from other countries, as well as from many non-governmental environmental and Aboriginal organizations.

The NCP has been a leader in advancing knowledge of chemical contaminants from long-range transport sources in the Canadian Arctic for over 20 years. During that time, Northerners have been encouraged to participate in a wide range of research activities; this has the added benefit of bringing the information back to Northern communities. These activities have resulted in the development of considerable local expertise in and understanding of the issues associated with Northern research.

These committees in the Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Nunavik, and Nunatsiavut , vary in size and makeup, but all include representation from the regional health authorities, wildlife and research authorities, and aboriginal organizations.

We attended the blueprint planning meetings and responded to emails and other forms of communication relevant to NCP projects and blueprints. Skip to content Northern Contaminants Program. NCP Management Committee.