New Caledonia’s Ni deposits account for ~ 8.2% of the world’s production of mined nickel, with a major smelting facility located in the country’s capital city of Nouméa (population 100,000). There are emerging concerns relating to contamination of human and natural ecosystems from dust and soil contamination from mineral processing emissions, which started the late 19th century. There is widespread reuse of Ni smelter slag in the city for multiple uses (e.g. building aggregate, erosion control, added to soil and surface as ‘gravel’) in the city, which contains up to 2% Cr. This study provides the first integrated environmental analysis of the impact of the smelter and associated anthropogenic trace element contamination of Noumea’s natural and human environments. To assess the impacts from smelting, hundreds of trace element data points were collected across Nouméa in a variety of matrices. These include natural rocks and deep soils, top soils, deposited dusts, residential garden soils, indoor vacuum dusts, honey bees and honey produced within the city’s urban environment. Rocks, soils and exterior and interior vacuum dusts were analysed for their trace element concentrations using X-ray fluorescence at < 100 locations within a 3 km radius of Nouméa’s Ni smelter. Samples of bees (live and dead), honey, soil and deposited dust were collected at 15 beehive locations across the Noumea area to ascertain if and what contaminants are being remobilized in dust, contaminating both food and ecological systems. Natural/background values were assessed using two bee hive locations, distant from the smelter, along with analysis of rocks and sub-surface soils from the main geological strata present in the city. Preliminary environmental data show that anthropogenic contaminants Cr, Ni, Pb and S exceed natural values by up to 8, 2.5, 10 and 15 times in different matrices. Analysis shows that CrVI is present in the slag and surface dusts (x̅ total Cr in deposited dust = 450 µg/m2) and that more than 60% of Ni dust loadings are > 1000 µg/m2 (x̅ Ni in dust = 2,400 µg/m2). The presentation will detail trace element concentrations in live and dead bees and corresponding honey samples and evaluate the data against corresponding levels measured in the adjoining environment to assess the remobilization and recycling of anthropogenic contaminants.

Studies of interior air exposures to various human and non-human components has largely been restricted to industrial exposures for the purpose of regulation. In contrast, little attention has been paid to exposure at the residential scale, where people spend much of their day and may be exposed to particulate sources ranging from known toxins, such as lead, arsenic, and asbestos, to human-produced chemicals of yet unknown toxicity, such as flame retardants. To capitalize on experience with citizen science initiatives as they pertain to environmental health, researchers formed an international network called 360 Dust Analysis, which provides guidance on citizen science and interior dust collection, as well as research tools to examine dust through analysis in regional labs. We present initial results from the July 2018 launch of this program in the USA, called DustSafe USA and operated under approved human subjects protocols by Indiana University (http://www.urbanhealth.iupui.edu/). We launched via multiple media strategies, including an extended television news segment, an article in several Indiana newspapers, appearances in several statewide radio shows, and via a widely distributed press release. As of this abstract submission, well over 300 queries were received, and after only two weeks of the launch the lab has received nearly 100 dust samples. Participants are largely from central Indiana where most of the media play occurred, but samples have also come from all over the country. We will present geochemical and compositional results from the dust analysis, but perhaps more importantly we will discuss how citizens were engaged, how the funding model for such efforts might be developed, and the general approach to research translation and citizen science.