![](\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/dowbrigade\/polari.jpg\")
Living
\n closer to the North Pole than to any city, factory, or farm, the Inuit
\n appear unscathed by any industrial-age ills. They live much as their
\n ancestors did, relying on foods harvested from the sea and skills honed
\n by generations of Inuit.<\/p>\n
But as northbound winds carry toxic remnants of faraway lands to their
\n hunting grounds in extraordinary amounts, their close connection to the
\n environment and their ancestral diet of marine mammals have left the Arctic’s
\n indigenous people vulnerable to the pollutants of modern society. About
\n 200 hazardous compounds, which migrate from industrialized regions and
\n accumulate in ocean-dwelling animals, have been detected in the inhabitants
\n of the far north.<\/p>\n
The bodies of Arctic people, particularly Greenland’s Inuit, contain the
\n highest human concentrations of industrial chemicals and pesticides found
\n anywhere on Earth — levels so extreme that the breast milk and tissues
\n of some Greenlanders could be classified as hazardous waste.<\/p>\n
Nearly all Inuit tested in Greenland and more than half in Canada have
\n levels of PCBs and mercury exceeding international health guidelines. In
\n newborns’ umbilical cord blood and mothers’ breast milk, average PCB and
\n mercury levels are 20 to 50 times higher in remote villages of Greenland
\n than in urban areas of the United States and Europe, according to a 2003
\n report by the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme, or AMAP, a scientific
\n consortium created by the eight Arctic nations, including the United States.<\/p>\n
\n from the Living closer to the North Pole than to any city, factory, or farm, the Inuit appear unscathed by any industrial-age ills. They live much as their ancestors did, relying on foods harvested from the sea and skills honed by generations … Continue reading
\n Los Angeles Times<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"