The chemicals known as POPs, or persistent organic pollutants, that travel north and stay include DDT, PCBs, dioxins, mercury, lead, benzene and tuolene. Often the toxins find their way into people. A 1992 study of maternal blood in far-northern countries showed that women from Greenland and Canada's eastern Arctic had the highest levels of DDT and PCBs, reflecting their diets of sea mammals, fish and seabird eggs. When they came in and did testing on blood and breast-milk, they were shocked. Scientists say the toxins can cause cancer, damage reproductive and neurological organs, injure immune systems and cause learning disabilities.
Research continues to ascertain the actual toll on Inuit health.
Scientists say they believe that these may be caused by exposure to such chemicals as PCBs, which are used in electrical equipment. Toxins travel in low concentrations in ocean currents, or in the winds, falling in places where they have never been used. Abandoned pesticides have been poured into drinking water. Poorly controlled incinerators produce dioxins. More than six tonnes of PCBs reach the Arctic each year this way, polluting the waters and tundra.