York scientists tackle heavy metal pollution
Posted on 29 March 2006
Heavy metals can pollute soils, particularly in countries where environmental controls have been historically less rigorous. The EU-backed PHIME programme will study ways of reducing the adverse impact on health of food grown on land contaminated by industrial emissions, and through drinking water and inhaled air.The project worth £26 million involves a network of 31 research partners, including clinicians, toxicologists and plant scientists, from most EU member states, as well as Croatia, Switzerland and the USA, and three developing countries - China, Bangladesh and Seychelles.
The project will investigate how far long-term low level exposure to toxic heavy metals causes a range of health problems, and how they can be prevented, particularly among high risk groups, such as women, foetuses, children, and individuals with particular genetic traits.
This is an exciting challenge with huge potential health benefits for thousands of people across Europe and beyond
Professor Dale Sanders
The York team, headed by Professor Dale Sanders, is one of eight project partners working with plants. They will investigate the ways in which plants absorb heavy metals such as lead, cadmium and zinc.
The scientists at York will work with barley to try to breed plants which take up less toxic metals and more elements such as zinc, copper and selenium that have health-promoting properties, both for plants and humans.
Professor Sanders said: "This is an exciting challenge with huge potential health benefits for thousands of people across Europe and beyond. It is an unusual project in that it involves close collaboration between clinicians and plant scientists, and will encourage the sort of dialogue between the two communities which has rarely occurred in the past."
The PHIME programme is being co-ordinated by Professor Staffan Skerfving, of the Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at Lund University, Sweden, though the project's website www.phime.org/ is being run from the University of York.
Notes to editors:
- The EU grant to PHIME (Public health aspects of long-term, low-level mixed element exposure in susceptible populations strata) is ?13 million, with a similar amount being pledged by project partners.
- PHIME will study long-term, low-level exposures to elements including mercury, cadmium, lead, arsenic, manganese, platinum, palladium, rhodium and uranium, through foods, water and inhaled air. It will study how far disorders such as developmental disturbances of the foetal brain and Parkinson´s disease, coronary heart disease, stroke, osteoporosis/fractures, diabetes and uremia are caused by toxic elements, and how they can be prevented.
- The geography of the exposure, and its changes over time, will be screened by analyses of metals in blood from women and children from many parts of Europe to enable comparisons and risk assessment.
- PHIME will aim for the rapid and effective dissemination of the information to such as the European Commission and its agencies, other international organizations, and national and regional authorities on health, foods, environment and agriculture to aid risk-management and health promotion.
- The Department of Biology at York is one of the leading centres for biological teaching and research in the UK. The Department, with more than 400 scientific and support staff and 400 undergraduates, currently has one of the highest research ratings in the UK.
- Professor Dale Sanders is head of the Department of Biology at the University of York, where he graduated in Biology in 1974, before doing a PhD at Cambridge. He later worked at Yale University, returning as a Lecturer at the University of York in 1983. He was promoted to Professor in 1992 and became Head of Department in 2004. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2002.