Assessing Contaminant Risks as a Result of Militarization across the U.S.-Affiliated Pacific Islands
Photo credits (clockwise beginning with agricultural pesticide photo): Creative Commons BY 2.0 from Maasaak, Ell Brown, qubodup, Podknox, and PEO ACWA.
What are we looking for? Hawaiʻi and U.S.-Affiliated Pacific Island (USAPI) coastal communities are vulnerable to a wide range of contaminant risks as a result of historic and ongoing militarization. This work clearly identified numerous knowledge gaps in the region and also highlighted contaminants that are well-studied and strongly associated with certain types of land use. This project focused on six categories of contaminants: heavy metals and trace elements, agricultural chemicals, fuels and hydrocarbons, radioactive materials, explosives, and industrial chemicals.
Affected Geographic Regions: A systematic literature review was conducted to examine documented human health risks as a result of military activity in American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), Guam, the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), Hawaiʻi, the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), and Palau. Hawaiʻi had the greatest number of articles published within the last ten years for any region, while Palau had the fewest. Heavy metals and trace elements were the most frequently discussed contaminants in the literature about the CNMI, Guam, and Hawaiʻi; radioactive materials were the most frequently discussed contaminants in the literature about the RMI and Palau; and fuels and hydrocarbons the most frequently discussed contaminants in the literature about American Samoa and the FSM. Contaminants were more frequently measured in soils, marine sediments, and biota than in freshwater sediment, surface water, groundwater, or air.
Why is this helpful? Identifying frequencies and volumes of contaminants observed historically provides the groundwork for local and regional action to reduce current risks to human and ecosystem health, and improve coastal resource management moving forward. It also highlights areas that have been understudied or that may be important for future work.
Dylan Pilger led this work as a Rappa Fellow (Peter J. Rappa Resilient and Sustainable Coasts Fellowship) and graduate student research assistant in the Office of Public Health.
Photo credits: Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA5) maps of the detailed view of Hawaiʻi and the U.S.-Affiliated Pacific Islands, with service layer credits of Esri, Garmin, GEBCO, NOAA NGDC, and other contributors.
