SURFACE water

Surface Water Collection

One of the components of the First Nation Food Nutrition and Environment Study (FNFNES) will be to address the presence of pharmaceuticals in surface water on First Nations reserves. The objectives of the pharmaceuticals component of the FNFNES will be:

  • To establish a baseline of human pharmaceuticals occurrence in surface water on reserves in Canada
  • To determine the exposure of fish and shell fish (staples in First Nations’ diet) to human pharmaceuticals in surface water on reserves in Canada
  • To establish a pharmaceutical priority list for future health and environmental effects studies

The criteria used for the selection of pharmaceuticals were:

  1. levels of detection of the pharmaceuticals in the aquatic environment in previous studies
  2. frequency of detection of the pharmaceuticals in the environment in previous studies
  3. evidence of usage of the pharmaceuticals in First Nations communities.