WWF-UK: Arctic peoples ask the EU to stop polluting them with chemicals
Access key details
This site uses the UK government standard access keys, as shown below:
S - Skip navigation1 - Home page
2 - What's new
3 - Site map
4 - Search
5 - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
9 - Feedback form
0 - Access key details
Section navigation
How you can help
Arctic peoples ask the EU to stop polluting them with chemicals
Tuesday 20 June 2006
A delegation of the Arctic Indigenous Peoples has told Members of the European Parliament in Brussels that the EU must take responsibility for the hazardous chemicals that make their way from industrialised areas like the EU to the Polar Regions.
At a conference, organised by the Arctic Council Indigenous Peoples' Secretariat and the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme with the support of WWF, scientists such as Dr Jon Øyvind Odland from the University of Tromso in Norway, denounced the fact that 'already banned chemicals but also new contaminants are being found in the bodies of Arctic Peoples, mainly due to ingestion of chemicals from traditional food'. As he explains, 'Until now we have very scarce research on human health effects of the new contaminants. However, that doesn't stop industry from producing and spreading them without any control'.
In fact, results from the first study testing people living in the Arctic for newer, current-use chemicals, show that brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and the fluorinated chemical PFOS (used in household items such as televisions, computers and cooking pans) were detected in the blood of all 20 pregnant women tested in the northern town of Bodø, Norway, and in Taimyr, a town in the Russian Northern Siberia where there are no local sources or uses of these pollutants. Furthermore, Dr. Odland's observations in far East Russia show that "there is a positive correlation between the amount of PCBs found in the mothers and the number of baby girls being born, thus altering the natural balance in that region".
As Rune Fjellheim, Executive Secretary of the Indigenous Peoples Secretariat (IPS) says, 'The lives of Arctic Indigenous Peoples are being radically impacted by chemicals that end up in the Arctic. Overall, these chemicals are neither produced nor used by us. We do not see their benefits, instead we suffer only their harmful effects on our health, cultures and ways of life'. An opinion shared by Alona Yefimenko, technical advisor to IPS, who insists on the risk that 'Arctic Indigenous Peoples may have to turn away from traditional foods because they are becoming so heavily contaminated. In some regions, the body burden of chemicals such as brominated flame retardants is expected to double every four or five years'.
After hearing the evidence, Lena EK, Swedish Member of the European Parliament that hosted the event, said "we all believed this was an untouched area… but we now see what's happening and it's really terrifying".
Participants in the conference agree that REACH, the future EU chemicals legislation, offers hope to reduce the presence of toxic chemicals in the Arctic and everywhere else, by identifying and phasing out the most hazardous chemicals. But it can only achieve this if it is substantially strengthened. As Alona Yefimenko from the Indigenous Peoples Secretariat says 'we hope that the EU will take the lead and will bring in a new chemicals legislation that is a benchmark to which other governments around the world should aspire'
In fact, results from the first study testing people living in the Arctic for newer, current-use chemicals, show that brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and the fluorinated chemical PFOS (used in household items such as televisions, computers and cooking pans) were detected in the blood of all 20 pregnant women tested in the northern town of Bodø, Norway, and in Taimyr, a town in the Russian Northern Siberia where there are no local sources or uses of these pollutants. Furthermore, Dr. Odland's observations in far East Russia show that "there is a positive correlation between the amount of PCBs found in the mothers and the number of baby girls being born, thus altering the natural balance in that region".
As Rune Fjellheim, Executive Secretary of the Indigenous Peoples Secretariat (IPS) says, 'The lives of Arctic Indigenous Peoples are being radically impacted by chemicals that end up in the Arctic. Overall, these chemicals are neither produced nor used by us. We do not see their benefits, instead we suffer only their harmful effects on our health, cultures and ways of life'. An opinion shared by Alona Yefimenko, technical advisor to IPS, who insists on the risk that 'Arctic Indigenous Peoples may have to turn away from traditional foods because they are becoming so heavily contaminated. In some regions, the body burden of chemicals such as brominated flame retardants is expected to double every four or five years'.
After hearing the evidence, Lena EK, Swedish Member of the European Parliament that hosted the event, said "we all believed this was an untouched area… but we now see what's happening and it's really terrifying".
Participants in the conference agree that REACH, the future EU chemicals legislation, offers hope to reduce the presence of toxic chemicals in the Arctic and everywhere else, by identifying and phasing out the most hazardous chemicals. But it can only achieve this if it is substantially strengthened. As Alona Yefimenko from the Indigenous Peoples Secretariat says 'we hope that the EU will take the lead and will bring in a new chemicals legislation that is a benchmark to which other governments around the world should aspire'
