This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. The overall goal of this study is to determine if pesticides are entering the human diet through wild foods exposed to contaminated groundwater, and whether or not this poses a human health risk. Several of these pesticides (e.g. atrazine) while having little carcinogenic potential have been found to act as endocrine disruptors at very low levels. The hypothesis is that in rural Hawaii, significant human exposure to pesticides capable of endocrine disruption or other toxicities results from consumption of freshwater and near-shore crustaceans that are exposed to contaminated groundwater. Specifically, the proposed project will examine pesticide concentrations in those wild animals and plants that are traditionally collected for food by residents in rural areas of Hawaii (freshwater prawn, marine algae, crab, lobster). The human health risks of various levels of consumption of wild foods will be calculated by an EPA-based risk assessment model that takes into account consumption rates and exposures via multiple pathways. Those at greatest risk are the primarily minority populations consuming these traditional foods. The hypothesis is that human exposure to organohalides, endocrine disruptors or other pesticides will occur when these contaminants are carried by groundwater and runoff into streams and the near-shore marine environment where they accumulate in the fatty tissues of crustaceans and other wild foods eaten by humans. The null hypothesis is that these accumulations do not occur at levels presenting health risks to local residents consuming these foods. Such organohalides and pesticides found in ground water in the proposed study area include atrazine (and its decomposition products), simazine, diuron, hexazinone, ethylene dibromide (EDB), tetrachloroethylene or PCE, trichloropropane (TCP) and 1,2-dibromo-3-chloropropane (DBCP). Framed as a question, the research question is: do such exposures pose significant health risks to the humans consuming these foods? The focus will be on two Hawaiian Islands where wild foods are collected year-round in tropical climates and a strong cultural tradition exists of wild food consumption, particularly among minority groups such as native Hawaiians and Filipinos. The proposed study areas in Hawaii were selected on the basis of agricultural activity, history, residential development, documented contamination of groundwater by pesticides, and presence of pathways to harvestable populations of crustaceans and mollusks. The Hamakua coastline on the Island of Hawaii and the Paia district of Maui meet all of these criteria and will be the geographic focus of the study.
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