Communicating Risks About Alaska Natives' Food - The Arctic dilemma is how to raise community interest in pollution research without alarming the community and further eroding the Native cultures
Author:
Hild, C. M.
Date Published:
2003
Description:
ABSTRACT: What should public health researchers say to the public when low levels of known contami- nants are found in locally obtained foods and no viable alternative foods are available? How should communities be encouraged to participate in human sampling studies and health impact assessments, while being assured that their traditional diet is nutritious and safe to eat? The stage is set After a long winter of eating dried meat and foods stored from the previous year, the spring- time return of waterfowl is the first fresh meat for many Alaska Natives. In addition to hunting adult birds, Alaska Natives collect and eat their eggs as well. Some of these birds, however, have wintered in Asia and Central America on winter fallow fields that were sprayed with herbicides and insecticides. They bring in their bodies a collection of pollutants that may be banned for use in the communities that consume the birds for dinner. In the Arctic, fat becomes the currency for survival. Each predator targets the consumption of fat to maximize energy transfer. In this process lipophilic contaminants are passed very efficiently up the food chain and at each trophic level, they are biomagnified due to their persistence as well as their volume of consumption.
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