Persistent Organic Pollutants in the Arctic

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• Industrial and agricultural chemicals known as Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) have been found in high concentrations in Arctic humans and wildlife. They are transported to the Arctic via the atmosphere. Levels are highest in the fat of animals high in the food chain. A significant number of Aboriginal northerners, who depend on these species for subsistence, exceed the recommended consumption guidelines.

• Recent studies conducted under the Northern Contaminants Program concerning contaminant levels in blood of Inuit women in communities across the North have indicated that in the Kitikmeot, Kivalliq and Baffin Regions of Nunavut, 40 to 65 per cent of the women participants had levels of PCBs up to five times above values used by Health Canada and the Governments of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut to identify a level of concern. Levels in the milk of Inuit women are among the highest recorded in the world. This is related to the Inuit diet which is high in marine mammal fat.

• The greatest concern is for exposure of the fetus and infant to the mother's lifetime concentrations of contaminants which can be transferred to offspring during pregnancy and through nursing. The unborn child may be at risk of subtle effects related to learning ability, memory and resistance to infection.

• Traditional food continues to provide a critical source of nutrition to most northerners, as well as having an important role culturally, socially and economically.

• Most of our current knowledge on POPs in the Arctic has been provided by the Northern Contaminants Program (NCP), a multi-disciplinary initiative managed by Indian and Northern Affairs Canada that addresses health, science and communications.

• The only long-term solution to reducing the level of POPs in the Arctic is to prevent these substances from being released into the environment by establishing international controls. Work by the Government of Canada, the governments of the three territories and representatives of Northern Aboriginal peoples' organizations led to the development of an international agreement in the Northern hemisphere to control the release of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), signed in June 1998, by 36 countries as a protocol under the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution. A similar protocol on heavy metals was signed at the same time.

• A new legally binding global agreement on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) was finalized in December 2000 under the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The agreement, known as the Stockholm convention will be opened for signature at a diplomatic conference in Stockholm May 21-23, 2001. Environment Minister David Anderson will sign for Canada, accompanied by representatives of Northern Aboriginal people's organizations.

• Northern Aboriginal organizations have been fully engaged in the negotiation processes that have led to this POPs agreement through the creation of a coalition of four northern Aboriginal organizations. The coalition, Canadian Arctic Indigenous Peoples Against POPs (CAIPAP) represents the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada (ITC), Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC), Dene Nation and the Council of Yukon First Nations. This achievement serves as a model for future such involvement of Aboriginal peoples in issues affecting their well being.

For more information, please visit the NCP web site www.inac.gc.ca/ncp andthe Inuit Circumpolar web site www.inuitcircumpolar.com