Adverse Human Health Impacts in the Anthropocene

This commentary presents a summarized discussion of key findings and relevant ideas from previously published study, index analysis, and human health risk model application for evaluating ambient air-heavy metal contamination in Chemical Valley Sarnia (CVS). The CVS study provides previously unavailable data in the CVS area which evaluates the adverse effects on air quality due to nearby anthropogenic activities. The study provided an assessment of environmental pollutants, finding that carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic substances are present in trace quantities. The main findings of the study suggest that chronic exposure of humans to several contaminants identified in the area studied may lead to carcinogenic health effects, including cancer (such as nephroblastomatosis) as well as non-carcinogenic health effects, such as damage to the tracheobronchial tree. Children were found to have a significantly higher risk, that is, a higher hazard index: a value used to measure non-carcinogenic health risk from heavy metals identified in air samples collected during the research period from 2014 to 2017. This study quantified the influence of environmental contaminants, relative to human exposures and the consequence of developing nephroblastomatosis in the human population.