A local cancer research study has been awarded a world record for its impressive toenail collection, amassed in the name of some very serious science.

“I tell people that we’ve got 25,000 sets of toenails which we’ve collected and they all say ‘gross!’” says David Thompson, director of operations for the Atlantic Partnership for Tomorrow's Health (Atlantic PATH).

Guinness World Records had recognized the collection of 24,999 sets of toenails – roughly a quarter of a million clippings in total - as a new world record.

Thompson says 24,999 Atlantic Canadians from all four provinces contributed their toenails to the study.

The research started in 2010 and is part of a national study.

“It’s particularly important in Atlantic Canada, because we have the highest rates of cancer in the country,” says Thompson.

“Essentially, we’re looking at how lifestyle, environment and genetics work together to determine whether people get cancer or people don’t get cancer.”

He says toenails are an important part of the research.

“Toenails are very good indicators of things like heavy metal, exposures, and by markers to environmental pollutants,” says Trevor Dummer, research director for Atlantic PATH.

“We’re really interested in measuring arsenic and other metals in the toenails. It gives us a picture really of the environmental contaminants that people may have been exposed to for many, many months.”

They are also collecting blood samples from those taking part, and asking them to fill out a questionnaire.

“We’re going to follow them for many, many years and identify whether some of them get cancer and some of them don’t and look at the risk factors,” says Dummer.

So far, about 30,000 Atlantic Canadians have agreed to take part but Atlantic PATH hopes to recruit 40,000 participants by the end of the year.

Newcomers to the study won’t be part of the world record, however.

“Well, we could always compete with ourselves and get another one, but it’s certainly not too late to take part in the study,” jokes Thompson.

They hope the odd claim to fame will attract more people to take part in a serious scientific study.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Jacqueline Foster