UNM Metals Exposure and Toxicity Assessment on tribal Lands in the Southwest (METALS) Superfund Research Program

OVERALL Summary METALS
The UNM Metal Exposure and Toxicity Assessment on tribal Lands of the Southwest SRP Center
(METALS) focuses on >500 abandoned uranium mines (AUMs) on Navajo Nation, and the Jackpile Mine on
Laguna Pueblo, a legacy of the Cold War now being assessed under CERCLA. They represent >4500 AUMs
in the 15 Western US that are home to >1/2 of our Indigenous population. During the inaugural phase of
METALS, our team worked in close partnership with our Indigenous partners to determine that since mining
began in the 1940s, weathering of metal mixtures in the millions of tons of waste has produced nanoparticles
of varying mineralogy. While these nanoparticles have implications for both mobility and toxicity of the waste,
they are not considered in prioritization or clean-up due to significant data gaps. Our health studies have
shown that exposures to these metal mixtures increase the prevalence of hypertension, multiple chronic
diseases, and immune dysfunction, and autoantibody production. While ~25% of the population shows no
evidence of exposures, biomonitoring confirms an equivalent %age show exposure to clusters of up to 12
metals at significantly higher concentrations than the rest of the US population. Our community-partnered
approach and strong team integration inclusive of community partners has allowed our design of clinical
interventions that are scientifically sound and respectful of culture, in which we have high rates of participation
and compliance. Phase 2 of METALS will build on our strong community partnerships to drive our research by
their needs, and use single atom, state of the science, transmission electron microscopy to both answer
community questions on agricultural safety as impacted by particulate redistribution, and understand the
processes of resuspension, environmental mobility, and plant uptake at a mechanistic scale to inform risk
reduction. Our confirmation of multiple routes of exposures, and evidence of metals-induced inflammation and
oxidative stress lead us to examine contributions of ingestion and inhalation within community exposures.
These studies will explore the potential for high-dose exposures to immune regulatory cells in lung and gut to
alter systemic immune function, informing design of more targeted intervention. Our recognition of the role of
plant/fungi symbiosis in transformation of environmental metal mixtures has led to our collaboration with the
national Sevilleta Long Term Ecological Research program in New Mexico in development and testing of
fungal bioreactors based in the balance of native fungal communities and their interactions with geochemical
variables as a remediation strategy. These remediation approaches provide a novel strategy to overcome the
ineffectiveness of bacterial bioreactors in our oxic environment and produce sustainable, cost-effective
solutions to protect key resources of cultural importance. Our team will build on our strong partnerships to
build common dialogue with communities, researchers, clinicians, tribal and federal policy makers, informed by
our solution-oriented team science to inform risk reduction at community, clinical and policy levels.

Grant Number: 4P42ES025589-09
NIH Institute/Center: NIH
Principal Investigator: Jose Cerrato