Continued: Pollution studies getting personal

In south Minneapolis, 100 children are providing urine samples to be tested for arsenic from a long-abandoned pesticide storage site. In Oakdale, Lake Elmo and Cottage Grove, 200 adults are signing up to have blood drawn and analyzed for traces of three former 3M chemicals found in their drinking water.

The hunt for pollution is getting a lot more personal.

Scientists have traditionally measured contaminants in air, water, soil or food, and then estimated whether people were exposed to unhealthy levels. But now Minnesota and a handful of other states are increasingly using a technique called biomonitoring to measure chemicals directly in people: their blood, urine, hair and other body tissues and fluids.

"It answers the question: Is it in us?" said Jean Johnson, environmental epidemiologist at the Minnesota Department of Health. She directs the state's biomonitoring program, which includes four pilot projects.

In addition to the tests for arsenic in south Minneapolis and 3M chemicals in the east metro, another study will test mercury levels in newborns' blood, which is already screened for other purposes. A fourth test will check the urine of pregnant women for a group of seven compounds called phenols, found in a wide variety of items from plastics to personal care products.

State health officials are preparing a report for the Legislature on the possibility of ongoing biomonitoring.

To find willing test subjects, the state will invite people from certain areas or clinics to participate and is not accepting applications.

Biomonitoring has been conducted nationally by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and by some universities since the 1970s. Now some states are planning their own programs, including California, New York, New Hampshire and six Western states in the Rocky Mountain Biomonitoring Consortium.

That interest, said Johnson, is driven by sophisticated new lab technology that can analyze hundreds of chemicals, sometimes at levels of parts per trillion, and by growing citizen concern about what chemicals are in the environment -- and in their bodies.

A gift card and peace of mind

Kirsten Olson was angry when she learned a couple of years ago that federal environmental officials were digging up arsenic-contaminated yards in her Corcoran neighborhood in south Minneapolis. She enrolled her 7-year-old daughter, Elin, in the arsenic testing to assure that the girl was not at risk.

"I'm a strong believer in letting your kid play in the dirt," she said, and Elin had been doing so since she was a toddler.

Olson said her daughter was healthy and the family has always taken care to wash hands before eating. So she wasn't too nervous about allowing Elin to be tested when the opportunity arose in August.

"My daughter was a little unsure about the whole peeing-in-the-cup thing," Olson said. But after the test, the family received a $10 Cub Foods gift card for their trouble. They used it to buy extra State Fair ride tickets for Elin. "That was more than worth it to her," Olson said.

Arsenic was detected in Elin, but at very low concentrations. If levels had been high, treatment could have counteracted any problems, Olson said.

As a pediatric nurse, Olson said she is familiar with privacy requirements and medical records. She was comfortable with assurances that test results would be confidential.

"I wouldn't blindly go into doing a study," said Olson. She said she would be much more hesitant about participating in genetic testing that might estimate future risks of contracting a particular disease.

Johnson said that participants in the biomonitoring studies read a lengthy description beforehand of how the data will be collected, what they will be used for, how they will be kept secure, and any risks and benefits that might be involved. No testing occurs until individuals have read, understood and signed informed consent forms, she said, so privacy is not an issue.

Test results cannot be released to anyone except the participant, Johnson said, and the findings of a completed study are published only in summary form.

Carol Pass, president of the East Phillips Improvement Coalition, said she's glad that health officials are studying people, not just property, in neighborhoods such as hers near the former pesticide storage and mixing site at 28th Street and Hiawatha Avenue.

"If you're an advocate for low-income people and struggling populations and new immigrants, then knowing what's happening to them medically is crucial," Pass said. Low-income people tend to live in older neighborhoods that may have been contaminated decades ago when there were no pollution laws, she said, and those areas need to be cleaned up. "In some sense it's a medical civil rights issue," said Pass.

Tests may not yield answers

While consumers line up to be tested, public health experts caution that the answers they get for some contaminants may not tell them all that much.

Detecting chemicals in people is fascinating, but it can also be misleading, said Dr. Beth Baker, who practices occupational medicine and heads the state's biomonitoring advisory panel. Just because a chemical can be found in someone does not mean that it will cause disease, she said.

For some long-studied contaminants such as lead and arsenic, toxicologists know what concentrations are harmful, Baker said. But much less is known about potential health effects of the 3M perfluorochemicals.

Biomonitoring is a wonderful tool, but its importance has been exaggerated, said Samuel Yamin, public health scientist for the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy.

"It's one piece of a very big puzzle," he said. Testing what is in an individual's blood or urine must be linked with learning whether it's in a neighborhood, Yamin said. Then there are questions about whether it's worse in one population group than in another, whether concentrations are increasing and what to do about the source, if it can be discovered.

"We may not be sure what harm it's doing to you, if any, but we know it's not good news," said Yamin. "That's why the public is interested and concerned and watching where these things are going."

Tom Meersman • 612-673-7388