Research reports say these chemicals are linked to suppressed immune systems.

Santa Fe—Traditionally Native mothers have fed their infants mother’s milk. The breast milk carries nutritional and immune system qualities that can only be given from mothers. However, the presence of contaminants and toxicants has now been found prevalent in mothers’ milk, stretching from South America to the Arctic.

The Inuit people are especially hard hit because they eat a diet rich in fat from many sea animals, such as whale, seal, and fish. The contaminants are directly stored in animal fat and then consumed by the Inuit people. These chemicals are concentrated as they move up the food chain and passed in the placenta and breast milk.

Recent studies by the National Institute of Health have found higher incidents of ear infections in young Inuit children from the Arctic. Researchers have also found higher levels of heart disease and cancer in northern peoples from the Arctic.

Environmental Hazards Exist Across Indian Country

Environmental hazards plague reservations and people. In many cases diabetes and cancer have become more and more a threat. In South Dakota on the Rosebud and Pine Ridge reservations, pig farms have contaminated a large underground aquifer that travels from North Dakota to Texas. Nuclear waste is dumped on tribal land in Alaska and Utah, but nowhere is it more drastic and prevalent as in the environment of the north.

Persistent Organic Pollutants, otherwise known as POPS, are airborne toxicants that cannot be seen or smelled or tasted in sustenance from the land. Chemicals, such as deildrin, mirex, and DDE, are found in agriculture pesticides and industrial processes. According to the National Institute of Health, all of these chemicals are present in Inuit breast milk.

These contaminates are known collectively as man-made industrial chemicals, although scientists do not know which is the cause nor can they pinpoint just one specific pollutant. Heavy metals like mercury and lead are mined or smelted, and even coal burning power can release these toxicants. Radionucluids from uranium and nuclear disposal or atmospheric testing can also cause this damage.

Contaminants Become Windborne

Most of these chemicals have been cut back severely or banned in the U.S. and Canada. Unfortunately, this is not true for many underdeveloped countries. These contaminants evaporate from the ground and are then carried long distances in wind streams. These winds collide and precipitate in colder climates, like in the Rocky Mountains and the Arctic.

These chemicals are found in rainwater and snowfall, then are found in plant life, which animals eat, and in water in which fish and sea mammals live, and then eventually found in northern aboriginal people’s diet.

How much do these toxins affect humans? Research reports say these chemicals are linked to suppressed immune systems that lead to other known complications as poor ear development, infections, poor hormonal development, neurological development, and cancer. Sometimes the chemical toxicants can be over five times the amount in southern countries and northern.

These contaminates are of global and national concern. To find help in your community:

www.earthfirst.org

www.earthshare.org

National Indian Women’s Health Resource Center

www.niwhrc.org

POPS are airborne toxicants that cannot be seen, smelled, or taste.

Copyright © IAIA CHRONICLE 2004