Laurie Hing Man Chan

University of Ottawa · Department of Biology

Indoor air quality is an important determinant for the health of children and youth, but the conditions within Indigenous communities are understudied. We collaborated with Kanehsatake First Nation in Quebec, Canada, to address this gap using a community-based participatory research approach. Levels of key indoor air indicators, including particula...

Objective China has been undergoing a rapid nutrition transition in the past few decades. This review aims to characterise commonly reported dietary patterns in Chinese populations and their associations with health outcomes. Design We searched PubMed, Embase and CNKI from inception to June 2020 to identify observational studies reporting dietary...

Understanding the dietary patterns of First Nations is crucial for addressing health disparities and promoting well-being. Historical assaults (colonization and loss of control over their lands) have strongly altered dietary practices and impacted health outcomes for generations. Canada conducts regular surveys to assess the extent to which individ...

Glyoxalase 1 (Glo1) is an essential enzyme to detoxify methylglyoxal (MGO), a cytotoxic byproduct of glycolysis. Accumulating studies have shown an important role of Glo1 in regulating cortical development and neurogenesis, potentially contributing to the pathogenesis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) when impaired. We have previously shown that pr...

Indigenous peoples in Canada are disproportionately exposed to environmental contaminants and may face elevated health risks related to their unique cultural, spiritual, and economic relationships with the land, including the use of traditional food systems. However, to date, institutionalized approaches to assess risks to human and ecological heal...

Toenails are a common monitoring tool for arsenic exposure, but the risk of external contamination of toenails has cast doubt on its usefulness. The main objective of this study is to investigate the micro-distribution of arsenic through the dorsoventral plane of nail clippings to understand endogenous vs exogenous sources. We used laser-ablation i...

The objective of this study is to examine the potential cardiovascular risk of climate-related declines in seafood consumption among First Nations in British Columbia by assessing the combined effects of reduced omega-3 fatty acids and mercury intake from seafood on the risk of myocardial infarction (MI) in 2050 relative to 2009. The data were deri...

Fetal development is one of the most sensitive windows to methylmercury (MeHg) toxicity. Laboratory and epidemiological studies have shown a dose–response relationship between fetal MeHg exposure and neuro performance in different life stages from infants to adults. In addition, MeHg exposure has been reported to be associated with disorders in end...

Modern increases in mercury levels in Arctic marine mammals have important implications for people who consume these resources as part of a traditional diet. This paper establishes estimates of dietary exposure to mercury from the consumption of beluga whales for the historic (pre-Euroamerican contact) and modern Mackenzie Delta Inuit populations....

Aberrant neurodevelopment is a core deficit of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Here we ask whether a non-genetic factor, prenatal exposure to the environmental pollutant methylmercury (MeHg), is a contributing factor in ASD onset. We showed that adult mice prenatally exposed to non-apoptotic MeHg exhibited key ASD characteristics, including impaire...

Arctic marine species, from benthos to fish and mammals, are essential for food security and sovereignty of Inuit people. Inuit food security is dependent on the availability, accessibility, quality, and sustainability of country food resources. However, climate change effects are threatening Inuit food systems through changes in abundance and nutr...

Background/objectives: The body burden of mercury in humans can be measured through hair or blood biomarkers. To compare results from different studies, it is often required to convert mercury in hair to an equivalent level in blood, using a default hair:blood ratio of 250:1 by the World Health Organization (WHO). However, the actual ratio may var...

Understanding mechanisms that promote social-ecological resilience can inform future adaptation strategies. Among seafood dependent communities, these can be illuminated by assessing change among fisheries portfolios. Here, in collaboration with a Coast Salish Nation in British Columbia, Canada, we used expert Indigenous knowledge and network analy...

Obesity, ethanol, and contaminants are known risk factors of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases (CMD). However, their interplay on clinical profiles of these diseases remains unclear, and thus were investigated in this study. Male lean or obese JCR rats were given water or 10% ethanol and orally treated with or without a contaminant mixture (CM)...

Climate change is already impacting the North American Great Lakes ecosystem and understanding the relationship between climate events and public health, such as waterborne acute gastrointestinal illnesses (AGIs), can help inform needed adaptive capacity for drinking water systems (DWSs). In this study, we assessed a harmonized binational dataset f...

A multi-stage sampling strategy selected 1387 on-reserve First Nations adults in Ontario. Foods from a 24-hour dietary recall were assigned to the 100 most common food groups for men and women. Nutrients from market foods (MF) and traditional foods (TF) harvested from the wild as well as MF costs were assigned based on the proportions of total gram...

In the original article [...]

Despite the economic benefits of the oil and gas industry in Northern Alberta, significant concerns exist regarding the impacts of increased oil production on the environment and human health. Several studies have highlighted increases in the concentrations of polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs) and other hydrocarbons in the atmosphere, water, soi...

Background: Global concerns of methylmercury (MeHg) exposure have been raised, especially on its effects on pregnant women. Recent epidemiological studies have revealed associations between maternal blood/hair MeHg concentrations, adverse pregnancy outcomes, and developmental deficits. However, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Objectives...

Objective To investigate the relationships between fish/seafood consumption patterns and food security status among First Nations (FN) communities in Canada. We estimated the contribution of fish/seafood to daily nutrient requirements. Barriers to traditional food (TF) access including fish were summarized. Methods Data were collected by the First...

Objective Our objective is to describe self-reported health status, prevalence of diabetes and obesity and their associations in participants from the First Nations Food, Nutrition and Environment Study (FNFNES) in order to identify possible correlates of health in First Nations adults. Methods FNFNES is a participatory study with First Nations Pe...

Objectives Pharmaceuticals are emerging contaminants in the environment. Little has been published about the presence of pharmaceuticals in waterbodies nearby or on reserve land of First Nations in Canada. The objectives of this study were to (1) quantify the level of pharmaceuticals in First Nations’ surface waters, (2) calculate the human health...

Objective To describe the prevalence of food insecurity in First Nations households across Canada while identifying barriers and enablers to traditional food (TF) consumption. Methods The First Nations Food, Nutrition and Environment Study is a cross-Canada participatory study of on-reserve First Nations from 2008 to 2018. The Household Food Secur...

Objective To describe the rationale, the participatory nature of the methodology, and the lessons learned during the First Nations Food, Nutrition and Environment Study (FNFNES), a community-based participatory research project implemented in eight Assembly of First Nations regions, which includes the entirety of Canada south of the 60 th parallel....

Objective To describe the traditional food (TF) systems of First Nations in Canada, including intake, barriers and promoters. Methods The First Nations Food, Nutrition and Environment Study is a cross-Canada participatory study of First Nations adults below the 60 th parallel that obtained data for communities excluded from other national studies....

Objectives First Nations may have a higher risk of contaminant exposure from the consumption of traditional foods. The objective of this study was to measure concentrations of metals and organochlorines in traditional foods commonly consumed by First Nations in Canada and estimate the risk from dietary exposure. Methods Data were collected from th...

Objective We previously examined the associations between dietary dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) intake from fish consumption and type 2 diabetes (T2D) prevalence in Ontario and Manitoba. This study aims to further explore the relationship in a regionally representative sample of First Nations adults liv...

Objectives To identify food sources of nutrients in First Nations adults in Canada and to establish whether these populations are meeting their nutrient requirements and whether traditional foods (TF) contribute to better nutrient intake. Methods The First Nations Food, Nutrition and Environment Study is a cross-Canada participatory study of First...

Objectives The First Nations Food, Nutrition and Environment Study (FNFNES), a community-based participatory research project, measured the levels of metals of health concern and the levels of metals that have operational guidance (OG) and aesthetic objectives (AO) in drinking water of First Nations (FN) south of the 60 th parallel. Methods Both s...

Objective Assess the diet quality of First Nations adults in Canada using percentage energy from traditional foods (TF) and ultra-processed products (UPP), food portions from the 2007 Eating Well with Canada’s Food Guide - First Nations, Inuit and Métis (EWCFG-FNIM) and a Healthy Eating Index (HEI). Methods Data collection for this participatory r...

Objective: The primary objective of this participatory study was to assess the current body burden of mercury among First Nations adults. Methods: The First Nations Food, Nutrition and Environment Study (2008-2018) collected regionally representative data from First Nations adults living on reserves south of the 60th parallel. Mercury was analyz...

Background Biomarker measures of contaminant exposure and nutrient status can help increase understanding of the risks and benefits associated with the consumption of traditional foods by Inuit. While gene-environment and gene-nutrient interactions may help explain variations in biomarker measures, the role of genetic polymorphisms is largely under...

Background There is evidence that exposure to mercury (Hg) may be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Objective To conduct a systematic review of published studies and a meta-analysis of the results to examine the associations between chronic Hg exposure and CVD outcomes. Methods We searched PubMed, Embase, and TOXLINE using previousl...

Fish and seafood are excellent sources of nutrients such as omega-3 fatty acids, Vitamin D, and selenium. The aims of this study were to examine the pattern of seafood consumption among Canadians and determine their contribution to intakes of energy and nutrients. Day-1 24-h dietary recalls data collected from a national survey, the Canadian Commun...

Ocean conditions can affect human health in a variety of ways that are often overlooked and unappreciated. Oceans adjacent to Canada are affected by many anthropogenic stressors, with implications for human health and well-being. Climate change further escalates these pressures and can expose coastal populations to unique health hazards and distres...

Indigenous Peoples in high-income countries experience higher burdens of food insecurity, obesity, and diet-related health conditions compared to national averages. The objective of this systematic scoping review is to synthesize information from the published literature on the methods/approaches, findings, and scope for research and interventions...

Abstact Wanshan is a city in southwest China that has several inactive mercury (Hg) mines. The local population are exposed to methylmercury (MeHg) due to the consumption of Hg contaminated rice. The relationship between Hg exposure and the cognitive functions of local children is unknown. This study investigated the relationship between hair Hg co...

Abstract Purpose: The Yellowknife Health Effects Monitoring Programme (YKHEMP) was established to examine the relationship of exposure to arsenic and other chemicals of potential concern such as antimony, cadmium, lead, manganese and vanadium and health outcomes. Participants: A total of 2037 individuals were recruited, including children (age 3-1...

Understanding the patterns of chemical exposure among biota across a landscape is challenging due to the spatial heterogeneity and complexity of the sources, pathways, and fate of the different chemicals. While spatially-driven relationships between contaminant sources and biota body burdens of a single chemical are commonly modelled, there has bee...

The Alberta Oil Sands Region (AOSR) in Canada is home to one of the largest oil bitumen deposits in the world. Being a top predator with a small home range and sensitive to disturbances, the North American river otter (Lontra canadensis) has been designated as a sentinel species for the potential impacts of the natural resource exploitation on fres...

There are concerns in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada, about arsenic exposure due to past mining operations, particularly the former Giant Mine. The objective of this study was to characterize the risk of arsenic exposure and associated risk factors among the local residents. Arsenic (As) and its species were quantified in urine (n = 196...

Fish is important in the traditional diet of Jamaicans, and the fishing industry contributes to social and economic development, as well as food security in Jamaica. However, there are associated health risks from contaminant exposure. The aim of this paper was to use risk-benefit analysis methods to determine the best fish species for consumption....

The burden of waterborne acute gastrointestinal illnesses (AGI) could increase with climate change. Understanding the relationship between weather, drinking water utilities and AGI can help increase adaptive capacity for drinking water utilities. Here, we present findings about the relationship between two protozoan AGI (cryptosporidiosis and giard...

Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada, is located near two closed gold mines. Elevated arsenic concentrations reported in fish are a public health concern. We collected 180 samples of three species of commonly consumed fish in 2013–2018 and analyzed arsenic species, including inorganic arsenic (As(III) and As(V)), monomethylarsonate (MMA), dim...

Fur has been validated to be a useful biomarker medium for chemical exposures and biological responses in wildlife. Mercury (Hg) is known to act as an endocrine disruptor by altering brain neurochemistry. In this study, we investigated the spatial patterns of relationships between total Hg (THg) and cortisol in the fur of river otter (Lontra canade...

Beef is a common staple food in many countries, and there is a growing concern over misinformation of beef products, such as false claims of origin, species and production methods. In this study, we used a mass spectrometry-based metabolomics approach to study the metabolite profiles of beef samples purchased from local retailers in Hong Kong. Usin...

Using omics approaches to monitor complex environmental mixtures is challenging. Previously, we evaluated in vitro transcriptomic effects of complex organic extracts derived from avian eggs. However, there is a lack of studies using wild species that are naturally exposed to contaminant mixtures. Here, we examined polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) and...

Objective To further understandings of household food insecurity in First Nations communities in Canada and its relationship with obesity. Design Analysis of a cross-sectional dataset from the First Nations Food, Nutrition and Environment Study representative of First Nations communities south of the 60th parallel. Multivariate logistic regression...

Consumption of mercury (Hg) contaminated rice can be a major environmental health issue but the toxicokinetics is not well known. Hg isotopes have been shown to be good tracers in studying Hg exposure and metabolic processes. We established a Hg mass balance and Hg isotope model in rats fed with Hg contaminated rice (THg 51.3 ng/g; MeHg 25 ng/g) fo...

A certified reference material, NIMD-01, was developed for the analysis of mercury speciation in human hair. We collected the hair of Vietnamese males from a barbershop in Hanoi in 2016 and prepared 1200 bottles containing 3 g of sieved and blended hair powder. The certified value was given on a dry-mass basis, with the moisture content obtained by...

The effects of selenium on human health are multiple and complex. This chapter provides a brief introduction to the chemistry and metabolism, sources and dietary intake, and the effects of deficiency and excess of selenium, followed by an overview of dietary recommendations set by different national and international agencies. We discuss the benefi...

The fur of piscivorous animals such as river otter (Lontra canadensis) and mink (Neovison vison) has been proposed to be used as a biomarker medium to assess mercury (Hg) exposure, but the relationship with dietary and environmental Hg exposure has not been fully characterized. The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between...

Due to the global ban on PFOS, the novel PFOS alternatives 6:2 chlorinated polyfluorinated ether sulfonate (F-53B) and sodium p-perfluorous nonenoxybenzene sulfonate (OBS) are emerging in the Chinese market, but little is known about their ecological risks. In this study, zebrafish embryos were exposed to PFOS, F-53B and OBS to evaluate their bioco...

We examined the feasibility of linear programming (LP) to develop diets that were economical, included traditional (cultural, non-market) foods and met the dietary reference intakes (DRI) in a Canadian Indigenous population. Diet optimisation using LP is a mathematical technique that can develop food-based dietary guidelines for healthy eating in I...

• Acrylamide (AA) is a common food contaminant known to detrimentally affect the nervous system. Homeostasis of the nervous system is dependent on glial cells, namely astrocytes and microglia, which actively participate in neuronal survival signaling pathways. Although the differential responses of monocultured astrocytes compared to co-cultured as...

With increasing international trade, food safety is becoming a global health concern, the requirement for food quality increases constantly. There is an urgent need for a new method to identify the potential problems and support policies for regulations. Metabonomics is an advanced tool suitable for the analysis of food safety. This paper shows tha...

Polyaromatic compounds (PACs) are by-products of combustion and are the major pollutants from the oil and gas industry. However, the mechanism of PACs induced toxicity still remains elusive. The aim of this study was to elucidate the effects of a typical mixture of PACs found in oil sand extract (OSE) on the respiratory, hepatic and nervous systems...

There is an acknowledged need in ecotoxicology for methods that integrate spatial analyses in risk assessment. This has resulted in the emergence of landscape ecotoxicology, a subdiscipline of ecotoxicology. However, landscape ecotoxicology has yet to become common practice in risk assessment due to the underdevelopment of techniques and a lack of...

This study examined occupational exposures of Ottawa firefighters to combustion by-products and selected metals. We measured exposures to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), antimony, cadmium, and lead using (1) personal air samplers worn by firefighters during emergency fire suppression; (2) wipe samples from skin, personal clothing, and pers...

This version contains the same material as the version already submitted to IDRC and posted on Researchgate. It varies mostly in that the format is now in A4 which is more appropriate for Cambodians than letter format.

This version contains the same material as the version already submitted to IDRC and posted on Researchgate. It varies mostly in that the format is now in A4 which is more appropriate for Cambodians than letter format.

This version contains the same material as the version already submitted to IDRC and posted on Researchgate. It varies mostly in that the format is now in A4 which is more appropriate for Cambodians than letter format.

This version contains the same material as the version already submitted to IDRC and posted on Researchgate. It varies mostly in that the format is now in A4 which is more appropriate for Cambodians than letter format.