Cattle as biosamplers: Cow-calf pairs living in the vicinity of the Anaconda smelter.

摘要

The purpose of this research was to examine the uptake of environmental contaminants by cattle living in the vicinity of the Anaconda National Priority List (NPL) site. Specific objectives were to: 1) Collect hair samples from domestic cattle grazing in the vicinity of the Anaconda NPL Site, 2) Identify elements of concern (EOCs) and animals of concern (AOCs) from the data, 3) Examine differences with respect to sex and age of the animals, 4) Consider potential human health risks related to consumption of these animals, and 5) Make recommendations for future research.;Hair samples were collected from live cattle and were analyzed for thirty-two elements utilizing Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectroscopy (ICP-MS). KS tests were performed for each element to determine if significant differences in concentration existed between the datasets for sex or age. Results did not reveal any significant trends. A paired t-test was performed on the cow-calf pairs sampled to test for differences in concentration between the pairs. The results revealed significant differences for a number of elements, including arsenic. EOCs and AOCs were identified using the hazard index approach. Thirty-five out of the 44 cattle from the Anaconda NPL site were identified as AOCs. Calcium, manganese, molybdenum, arsenic, barium, lithium, and strontium were identified as EOCs.;With data collected during this and previous biosampling projects, cattle and other animals could be used to conduct a biomonitoring project of larger magnitude and better relate the results to human health.