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Published in Fall 2003
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Task force concerned with effects of chemical on children
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By Raju Mudhar
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| © Keith Morehouse / US Fish and Wildlife Service Lindane is bioaccumulated through the food chain and found in the fish that Inuit eat. |
It's a chemical so dangerous to humans it can cause death if consumed undiluted, and it's found in trace amounts in the milk of Inuit mothers in the Arctic.
"It's in the animals that the Inuit are eating, and so we're finding high levels in breast milk and [umbilical] cord blood samples," says Stephanie Meakin, a molecular biologist and advisor to the Inuit Circumpolar Conference. "We're afraid these chemicals are actually affecting our children's ability to learn, or that they are affecting their immune systems."
The chemical is lindane, a persistent and bioaccumulative organic pollutant that is used mainly as a pesticide and treatment for head lice and scabies. And in the Arctic, where the Inuit peoples maintain a hunter/gatherer way of life, it is accumulating in the food they eat.
The Arctic, says Victor Shantora, head of the Pollutants and Health program at the CEC, has become a toxic sink for contaminants like lindane that cycle through the environment and settle in colder climates.
"When a chemical of this nature is used as a pesticide it will evaporate in the hot sun. The wind will blow it in whatever direction. And then, as the evenings get cooler or with the onset of wintry temperatures, this chemical, with little further potential to evaporate, falls and remains in the soil," he says. "That cycle continues year after year, so anything that's used in warmer climates in the world will tend to move toward the colder climates and accumulate in polar regions."
There, the circle of life takes over as smaller organisms absorb the chemical and move it up the food web and, ultimately, to human beings.
Dr. Irena Buka, a pediatrician in Alberta, says it can be particularly dangerous for children. When used for the treatment of scabies, lindane is rubbed all over a child's body and can be absorbed through the skin and can cause a number of side effects.
For indigenous children in Mexico, these fears are a reality as scabies is one of the top ten causes of death for children and lindane is used to counter the effects of scabies. Research has found that some infants in Mexico may be exposed to lindane levels 30 times greater than adults.
Continued use in North America as a seed treatment for certain crops as well for the treatment of lice and scabies, is also contributing to the cumulative affect at the top of the world, where lindane can best be described as a stubborn chemical.
"It can affect the bone marrow," says Buka. "It can cause anemia and white cell abnormalities. It can cause platelet abnormalities. It can cause liver and kidney damage. It can cause damage to the reproductive tract. But the main damage it can cause is neurological." |
"It can be highly persistent, so when it's released into the environment, it takes a very long time to break down. It's bio-accumulative, so even smaller organisms will incorporate it into their bodies as they are exposed to it in the environment and retain it in their cells. Since larger organisms eat the smaller ones, you can have bio-magnification as you go up the food chain, such that marine animals at the top of the food chain and other wildlife, like eagles for example, and also humans, can end up with very high concentrations of this chemical," says Shantora. "It's a very nasty compound."
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| © US Fish and Wildlife Service |
It accumulates in animal fats, which make up much of the diet of the Arctic peoples. And although lindane use is being slowly phased out, high levels have already been found and this chemical will be in the environment for a long time to come.
"It's not like you're going to see a huge increase in cancer incidences over a five-year period, but what we're afraid of is that these chemicals are actually affecting our children's ability to learn, or that they are affecting their immune systems," says Meakin. "Rates of ear infection are high in the North, as well reproductive disabilities in the wildlife and things like that, but the direct relationship is a very difficult, definitive statement to make."
Meakin is a member of the North American Task Force on Lindane. The task force has been set up by the CEC to come up with an action plan to harmonize the way the three countries manage the substance.
The task force has set out to identify the remaining uses of lindane and seek alternative substances for the agricultural and medical uses of the chemical. The North American Regional Action Plan (NARAP) that is being developed would then help the three countries to harmonize their approaches to deal with lindane.
The task force was started because all three NAFTA countries recognized it as an issue of common concern, particularly to their native peoples. The next step is a
public meeting on the lindane NARAP in Anchorage, Alaska, in February 2004, where the input of the public and indigenous peoples will be sought.
For the Arctic people, it's the next step in a long battle to maintain their way of life-this time from an unseen threat from the South.
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