A study published Wednesday in the scientific publication “Springer Nature” argues that higher concentrations of metals detected in skeletons of people who were buried in the municipality of Praia da Vitória may be linked to the contamination of soils and aquifers as a result of the US military presence at Lajes Base.
This study, whose first author is Félix Rodrigues, who is doing a PhD on the subject at the University of Coimbra, states that, about cadmium, chromium, and molybdenum, “the higher concentrations in skeletal samples may possibly reflect exposure to contamination from environmental sources linked to military activities”.
To carry out the study, the authors started from a first collection of identified skeletons gathered by Félix Rodrigues by current law.
“Since this collection comprises skeletal remains of individuals who had their last residence on Terceira Island, both in risk and non-risk locations, and considering human bone to be a bio-reservoir at death for metals and metalloids, we measured their concentrations, serving as a proxy for global exposure to contamination,” they say.
Specifically, 64 skeletons with known places of last residence were selected (44 from Angra do Heroísmo, where there is no risk of exposure, and 20 from Praia da Vitória).
It is explained that “the selected technology, portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF), was recently applied to identified skeletal collections to measure metal concentrations in human bones”.
Various methods were applied to eliminate factors such as diagenesis (the chemical, physical, and biological changes that bones undergo when buried).

It is pointed out that “the concentrations of As (arsenic) and Zr (zirconium) in the bones could be partially attributed to soil diagenesis, since these skeletons were previously buried in local cemeteries”, but that the same does not apply to “other metals”, such as the aforementioned cadmium, chromium and molybdenum.
“Although this pioneering study contributes to the ongoing discussion on the subject and suggests possible future research strategies, only comprehensive approaches can shed more light on the complex interaction between the environment and local livelihoods, both in the past and the present,” the study emphasizes.
António Félix Rodrigues and Armando Mendes from the University of the Azores and Vítor Matos and Maria Teresa Ferreira from the University of Coimbra co-authored the study.
It is recalled that “Lajes Base is a Portuguese military air base in the Atlantic that has been used by the US since the Cold War, mainly for intercontinental refueling” and that “for this purpose, large fuel tanks and an extensive network of pipelines were built in the municipality of Praia da Vitória”.
“Over the last two decades, fuel leaks have been detected and confirmed as contaminants of soils and aquifers that supply water for public use. For the latter, the contaminants identified include TPH, PAH, BTEX, VOCs and metals,” say the researchers.
They point out that “although risk assessment reports have identified unacceptable risks to human health, and journalistic investigations suggest abnormally high cancer rates”, no assessment of possible human exposure had been conducted to date.
The scientific article also recalls that, given that large fuel spills had been identified in these structures, the Americans commissioned a study in 2003, known as DISCO (Discovery of Suspected and Contaminated Sites Study) and conducted by the company CH2MHILL, to assess the quality of the soil and groundwater.
“The resulting report, as well as another from 2005 by the same company, identified several sites contaminated with hydrocarbon derivatives, highlighting potential risks to human health,” it says.
This and other elements were made public by journalistic reports in 2008, followed by studies by the National Civil Engineering Laboratory (LNEC).
“It was only in the latest LNEC report, from 2020, that the interpretations became unanimous among the groups: Environmental contamination is present in several places in the municipality of Praia da Vitória, affecting groundwater and posing risks to human health inside and outside the military perimeter,” the article now published stresses.

In Diário Insular-José Lourenço-director

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