Dane Gibson
Northern News Services

RANKIN INLET (Sep 08/99) - After three years and close to $2 million, McGill University scientists have compiled a snapshot of the Inuit diet.

The Inuit Dietary Study, conducted by McGill's Centre for Indigenous Peoples' Nutrition and Environment (CINE), is complete.

CINE toxicologist Laurie Chan said they are now compiling the results of almost 2,000 interviews done with residents of 18 Inuit communities.

"The whole purpose is to have a comprehensive understanding of Inuit food use," Chan said.

"When we know how much people are eating of certain traditional foods, we can document what the impact will be if those foods are threatened."

The study was conducted, in part, because toxins are being recorded in the meat and fat of many Inuit traditional foods. Most Arctic contaminants are man-made. Toxins such as PCBs, DDT, and toxaphene make their way to the Arctic by riding wind currents from the south.

The Northern Contaminants Program, administered by the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs, has tested mammals such as polar bears, caribou, walrus, seals and beluga whales for contaminants.

What they found is that creatures on the lower rungs of the food chain, things like bugs and shrimp, are only slightly contaminated. Those species higher up the food chain eat high volumes of the slightly contaminated species and become contaminated themselves.

Seals have higher levels of contaminants because of the amounts of large fish they consume. The whole process is called biomagnification.

The dietary study, Chan said, indicated seal meat was consumed the most, but patterns varied from community to community.

"We were surprised to see some communities ate lots of walrus where others don't eat walrus at all. In places like Rankin Inlet and Baker Lake, they eat more caribou and fish. It really varied," Chan said.

"Once we know how much traditional food people are eating and what types, we can measure how much contaminants people are taking in."

He said the study can be used to advise communities on how, or if, they need to change their diets. The information they collected will be especially useful for risk assessments and risk management.

"If, for example, we recommend people cut down their consumption of whale blubber, we need to know which nutrients will have to be replaced (in their diet), if they do that. Then we can suggest they eat more of something else to replace those nutrients," Chan said.

"Once the final results of the study are ready, which should be early next year, we will be organizing workshops to release the information throughout the different Inuit regions."