The Invisible Pollutant in the Canadian Arctic

April 6, 2007 — -- Elizabeth Andre is a member of the Global Warming 101 expedition currently on a four-month trip around the most remote, inhabited regions of the Arctic. This expedition to investigate the impact of global warming has been hampered by the very conditions it set out to document. This is an update on the trip as told to ABC NEWS.com.

The pristine beauty of the Canadian Arctic's Baffin Island is being ravaged by an unseen enemy. Airborne pollutants from the industrial cities to the south migrate to the Arctic on atmospheric currents. Invisible, odorless and tasteless, these poisonous chemicals and heavy metals accumulate in the fish that have been one of the main sources of food for natives here for thousands of years.

The levels of pollution travel up the food chain as seals eat fish and polar bears eat seals. People are at a very high risk from pollution since they are on top of the food chain.

In Baffin Island, where the Will Steger Global Warming 101 expedition is traveling, the local diet is still much the same as it was thousands of years ago; fish, seal, narwhal and bear. Pollutants in the food supply mean that the locals are constantly accumulating poisonous chemicals in their bodies.

The poisons are so harmful that Inuit women's unborn children and nursing infants are at risk. On Baffin Island, three quarters of women have PCB levels that exceed Canada's "level of concern." These poisons suppress the infants' immune systems, cause learning disabilities, alter hormone and reproductive systems, and obstruct brain development. The World Health Organization now recommends that Inuit women not breast-feed their infants.

However, traditional "country foods" are more nutritious than the imported processed food available in the community store. Country food also help the Inuit maintain their culture and connection with the land.