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Arctic Indigenous Women Consume Greater than Acceptable Levels of Organochlorines^1,2,

H. V. Kuhnlein^*,3, O. Receveur^*, D. C. G. Muir, H. M. Chan^* and R. Soueida^*

^* Centre for Nutrition and the Environment of Indigenous Peoples (CINE), McGill University, Ste. Anne de Bellevue, Quebec H9X 3V9 Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Central and Arctic Region, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3T 2N6

Exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls and organochlorine pesticides through traditional food resources was examined for Arctic Indigenous women living in two cultural and environmental areas of the Canadian Arctic—one community representing Baffin Island Inuit in eastern Arctic and two communities representing Sahtú Dene/Métis in western Arctic. Polychlorinated biphenyls, toxaphene, chlorobenzenes, hexachlorocyclohexanes, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, chlordane-related compounds and dieldrin were determined in local food resources as normally prepared and eaten. Quantified dietary recalls taken seasonally reflected normal consumption patterns of these food resources by women in three age groups: 20–40 y, 41–60 y and 61 y. There was wide variation of intake of all organochlorine contaminants in both areas and among age groups for the Sahtú. Fifty percent of the intake recalls collected from the Baffin Inuit exceeded the acceptable daily intake for chlordane-related compounds and toxaphene, and a substantial percentage of the intake records for dieldrin and polychlorinated biphenyls exceeded the acceptable or tolerable daily intake levels. Primary contributing foods to organochlorine contaminants intake for the Baffin Inuit were meat and blubber of ringed seal, blubber of walrus and mattak and blubber of narwhal. Important foods contributing organochlorine contaminant to the Sahtú Dene/Métis were carlbou, whitefish, inconnu, trout and duck. The superior nutritional benefits and potential health risks of traditional food items are reviewed, as are implications for monitoring organochlorine contaminant contents of food, clinical symptoms and food use.

KEY WORDS: • Arctic Canada • indigenous peoples • dietary contaminants • organochlorines • humans

¹ Funding was provided by the Arctic Environmental Strategy, Health Canada (HWC-MSBHQ88-8901650 and HWC-NT-87-88-014-CO), the National Health Research and Development Program (6605-3430-T) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (OGP0122081).

² The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 USC section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.

³ To whom correspondence should be addressed: Macdonald Campus of McGill University, 21,111 Lakeshore Road, Ste. Anne de Bellevue, Quebec, Canada H9X 3V9.

Manuscript received 10 November 1994. Revision accepted 30 May 1995.

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