Industrial Contaminant Concentration Variations in Traditional Medicinal Plants Utilized
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Pollution of local environment and associated health risks for residents has been an ongoing politicized issue since the inception of the Chemical Valley. The industrial complex hosts numerous petrochemical refineries and other facilities which release harmful contaminants. Due to Aamjiwnaang First Nation (AFN)’s close vicinity to the complex, their local environment and residents have been subjected to high exposure risks. This study examined concentrations of contaminants of potential concern (COPCs) in traditional medicinal plants used by AFN, with the goal of providing residents reliable empirical data to make informed decisions on maintaining, reducing, or abandoning traditional practices of using these plants. Paired plant and soil samples of plant species of interest were collected in AFN and Kettle and Stoney Point First Nation (KSP), which served as a reference site. A suite of metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were quantified in laboratory settings. A systematic review was conducted to examine the potential for uptake, biotransformation, and bioaccumulation of VOCs in the indicated plants. Metal concentrations assessed via Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) or Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICPOES), while PAHs were analyzed by Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS). In addition, lipid content was analyzed for plant samples while pH and loss on ignition (LOI) were examined for soil samples. Study findings indicated significant contaminant concentration differences in several plants. Notably, cadmium (Cd) concentrations were significantly higher (p < 0.05) in A. Canadense plants from AFN, and tungsten (W) concentrations in H. virginiana (p < 0.05) and (unwashed) T. occidentalis (p < 0.01) were also observed to be higher in AFN plants. For soil samples, Benzo [bkj] fluoranthene (B[bkj]F) concentrations were found to be significantly higher in Prunella vulgaris (p < 0.001), Thuja occidentalis (p < 0.05), and Sanguinaria canadensis (p < 0.05) in AFN. Although B[bkj]F mean concentrations were nearly 20 times below provincial guidelines. In addition, Cd and lead (Pb) concentrations in most plants from both communities exceeded European Commission maximum levels (MLs) for comparable food items. However, when contextualized with the relative infrequency of consumption of medicinal plants, reported concentrations were well below Health Canada oral total daily intake (TDI) levels on a yearly basis. Although it should be noted Pb is a non-threshold contaminant. To conclude, the present study found significant differences in COPC concentrations in plant and soil samples, although they were generally below provincial or Health Canada standards when contextualized in estimated yearly consumption rates. However, high usage or consumption rate of traditional medicinal plants found in the area should proceed with caution, due to detected presence of lead.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".