Suggested New Directions for Research for the Second Phase of Health Canada's Great Lakes Health Effects Program: Conclusions From a Workshop

Abstract

Health Canada sponsored a workshop on March 1-3, 1994, in Aylmer, Québec. The objectives of the workshop were to present the research findings of the department's five-year Great Lakes Health Effects program, to identify key conclusions from the research, and to define future research priorities. About one hundred researchers from various disciplines such as monitoring, exposure, general toxicology, carcinogenesis, mutagenesis, reproduction, teratology, neurotoxicology, immunotoxicology, risk perception, and environmental sociology participated in the workshop. Future objectives, to be achieved by the year 2000, were recommended by the participants for the second phase of the Great Lakes program. These included: obtaining additional monitoring data on fish, wildlife, wild birds' eggs, water, and sediment for the "critical" contaminants in the Great Lakes; establishing a human tissue bank to assess trends in the levels of such contaminants in humans; using models to assess human exposure to these contaminants from various biota; identifying groups that are highly exposed to the chemicals in the Great Lakes; identifying individuals who are overly sensitive to chemicals in the Great Lakes; increasing research on the influence of environmental contaminants on male fertility; continuing work on mixtures of the critical contaminants as well as on individual contaminants, and increasing research on the changes in public perception, values, attitudes, and behavior as a consequence of environmental pollution.