by Alison Blackduck
Northern News Services

NNSL (June 09/97) - Pesticides from as far away as China and Central America are making their way into the Arctic ecosystem and into the diets of Northerners, according to a federal study released Friday.

However, the draft summary of the Canadian Arctic Assessment Report concludes there's no cause for alarm and no reason to cut all traditional foods out of a healthy Northern diet.

"As the research stands now, unborn babies are the only population at any real risk," Craig Boljkovac of the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada, one of five aboriginal partner organizations in the study, said last week in a phone interview from Ottawa.

But even then, he pointed out, the risk can be minimized by making proper dietary choices.

The biggest risk comes from eating whale and seal uqsuq (fat) because contaminants accumulate in fatty deposits.

Unborn babies and children under two are at particular risk because it's during this time that the brain and central nervous system undergo major development and require large amounts of fatty acids.

The study recommends that pregnant women restrict their intake of marine mammals and eat more land mammals and fish.

How they're prepared also affects the level of contaminants. Smoking and drying fish or meat doesn't change the fat content. The study recommends either boiling (then draining of the water) or broiling.

Territorial medical officer Dr. Andre Corriveau pointed out that, unlike health services in Northern Quebec, the GNWT doesn't recommend cutting out marine mammals foods entirely.

Better and more specific dietary advice will come only if scientists are given the funds to carry out the next phase of their research.

The primary focus of the study was on "the types of contaminants that may be found in traditional/country food across ... the Canadian North."

And, "at the end of phase one, we have information on where the contaminants are coming from and their affect on the traditional diet and lifestyle of the human population," said Boljkovac. "But even our research in that area has just begun."

The second phase of the NCP study will, if approved, explore the effects of contaminants on the ecosystem and animals that are part of it.

Whether that phase will attract the necessary funding is up in the air. A new cabinet minister for the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs has yet to be named, and at least one of the study's partners is skeptical about the government's commitment to the program.

A source with one of the aboriginal partners said DIAND delayed releasing the study until after last week's federal election because the lack of guaranteed funding for the Northern Contaminants Program could have hurt the Liberal party at the polls.

"What they're trying to do is get other departments like Health and Environment Canada to help carry the program's cost," said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The need to study contaminants in the Arctic food chain is referred to twice in the Liberal campaign book, Securing a Future Together.

Also mentioned is $10 million dollars in new funding for research on toxic substances, but no details on how it will be allocated are included.

Hiram Beaubier, director general of DIAND's natural resources and environmental branch, denied the summary was delayed because of the election, but admits the program's directors are scurrying for funding beyond this fiscal year.

"Since the Green Plan Fund expired last March, the AES (Arctic Environmental Strategy) has been restructured," he said. "We've been looking for funding from any agency with an interest in how contaminants enter the North."

Beaubier said he believes NCP should have first crack at the $10 million promised in the Red Book.

"NCP should have priority over any other contaminants research," he said. "That'll be my argument when I'm fighting for NCP funding."