Canada first to ratify agreement on Arctic pollutants
Terry Kruger
Northern News Services
Stockholm, Sweden (May 28/01) - Calling pollution a "threat to cultural survival," Canada has become the first nation to ratify a global agreement on dangerous pollutants.
Flanked by Inuit Circumpolar Conference vice-president Sheila Watt-Cloutier of Iqaluit, and John Burdeck, representing the Yukon Council of First Nations, federal environment minister David Anderson signed the "Stockholm Convention" that aims to reduce or eliminate emissions of 12 toxic substances, Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) that are polluting the Arctic.
"They come from all other parts of the world," said Anderson by teleconference May 23. "The disproportionate effects of these POPs are in Canada's North."
The so-called "dirty dozen" chemicals accumulate in the food Inuit in Nunavut and other First Nations around the North depend upon, from caribou and musk ox to beluga, narwhal and seal. The chemicals, some of them known carcinogens, collect in animals' fatty tissue. When ingested by humans, the chemicals are retained in the body, and accumulate over time.
"In some parts of Nunavut, 40 to 60 per cent of women have levels of PCB in their blood that are five-times higher than the risk guidelines Health Canada accepts," said Anderson.
Watt-Cloutier said the issue is more than just an environmental one.
"The last thing we need to worry about is our food," she said. "It's a cruel irony that the food that imparts strength to us now imparts a toxic burden."
She said she hoped the agreement would begin the process of stopping use of the chemicals, which are mainly used in Third World countries. "It's going to take years."
She and Anderson acknowledged that while Canada's ratification of the convention is a first step, it still faces major hurdles.
To become binding, 50 countries must ratify the agreement in the next year. Money is also needed.
Canada's $20 million is "enough to start the process," and Anderson challenged other countries to put up similar amounts.
"We do not expect this to be cheap," he said of the effort to "turn off the tap at the source (of contamination)."
At the same time, Anderson said Canada is spending $96 million in the North to clean up DEW line sites and other contaminated areas. Money is also going into research to find out the impact POPs are having on Northerners.
Although long-term impact of the pollutants will only become clear with time, Watt-Cloutier worried that they are already causing illnesses.
"There are a high level of diseases and cancers occurring in the North and we have been quite suspicious of where it's coming from," she said.
"Dirty Dozen"
- Aldrin, Chlordane, DDT, Dieldrin, Endrin, Heptachlor, Mirex, Toxaphene, Polychlorinated biphenols (PCBs), Hexachlorobenzene, Dioxins; and, Furans.
Accumulated impact
- POPs released in one part of the world can be transported to regions far away from the original source.
- They concentrate in living organisms and are readily absorbed in fatty tissue where concentrations can become magnified up to 70,000 times the background levels.
- Fish, predatory birds, mammals and humans absorb the greatest accumulations.
- Specific affects include cancer, allergies and hypersensitivity, damage to the nervous system, reproductive disorders and disruption of the immune system.
Ongoing research includes:
- food choices by western arctic aboriginal women and children.
- Status of contaminants in caribou in the High Arctic.
- Organochlorine and Organobromine contaminants in Beluga and Ringed Seals; and,
- Study of POPs and metals in Ringed Seals and Walrus in the Arctic.
