All 2017 and 2018 participants in the Health Effects Monitoring Program will receive their complete results, for urine and toenail clippings, in a personal letter from Dr. Laurie Chan in mid-May.
Approximately 2,000 Ndilo, Dettah, and Yellowknife residents between the ages of 3 to 79 participated in the program which was launched in 2017 as part of the environmental assessment for the Giant Mine Remediation Project. The program will establish current or baseline levels of arsenic exposure among residents before remediation work begins.
The program states that current scientific methods “can only measure participants’ current levels of arsenic and other contaminants therefore during remediation, new monitoring results will be compared to the baseline to ensure participants’ arsenic levels are not increasing because of work being done at Giant Mine.”
Youth participants (ages 3 to 17 in 2017) will be invited to participate in a follow-up study in 2022/2023, and a follow-up study for all participants is planned for 2027/2028.
The main components of the program included:
- Lifestyle questionnaire
- Food frequency questionnaire
- Biological samples of toenails, urine and saliva (by swabbing your cheek)
Other components of the program included:
- Review of medical records
- A medical questionnaire and brief medical exam with a nurse (Yellowknives Dene First Nation)
Community meetings will be held the week of May 13th to share general results.
