The Northern Contaminants Program, funded for 10 years by the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (DIAND), will shortly lose funding, despite having recently made striking and disturbing discoveries. The levels of mercury and PCB found in arctic marine mammals are quite high, and the research program recently discovered “subtle” neurological effects on the babies of mothers who eat a traditional diet of “country food” - marine mammals, fish, and other subsistence foods. The program found that 73% of Inuit women have PCB levels up to five times higher than Health Canada’s official guidelines, while half of the Inuit tested had levels of other persistent organic pollutants that were 20 times the Health Canada limits.
