A Transdisciplinary Approach for Studying Uranium Mobility, Exposure, and Human Health Impacts on Tribal Lands in the Southwest United States

The geology of the Western United States (US) is rich in mineral resources that support a diversity of ecosystems and habitats capable of sustaining significant numbers of land-based human populations. The colocation of abundant mineral resources and human populations, however, can result in significant exposures to toxic metals if natural processes or human activities mobilize these metals in the environment. In 2017, the University of New Mexico Metal Exposure and Toxicity Assessment on Tribal Lands in the Southwest (METALS) Superfund Research and Training Center brought together a diverse group of researchers to merge their historical research interests in a team science approach to address environmental and biomedical challenges associated with abandoned mine wastes on tribal lands. The goals of this SRP Center are to understand how site-specific characteristics influence the mobility of metals in the environment and resulting community-level exposures to metal mixtures and to investigate the biological mechanisms that underlie mine-waste metal toxicity, working from population through molecular mechanistic levels, and manipulating doses and mixtures in controlled animal studies. Collectively, this interdisciplinary approach aims to deepen our understanding of how toxicity develops in order to inform interventions that can help to modify those toxic responses. In this chapter, we discuss the transdisciplinary approach upon which the University of New Mexico METALS SRP is built and highlight ongoing environmental and biological research projects that deepen our knowledge of metals exposures and impacts on indigenous communities. The METALS team builds upon knowledge developed from ongoing work across three generations of impacted community members and works closely with indigenous partners to improve our understanding of current and historical resource use and exposure. Through these partnerships, the METALS team has identified key factors affecting environmental mobility of complex metal mixtures found at abandoned uranium mines and continues working to assess the resulting toxicity that can differ based on the combinations of metals in the mixtures.