According to a recent study, the levels of one important class of industrial chemicals, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), are 30 times higher in Canadian Inuits living north of the Arctic circle, than in residents of temperate Quebec.
The research group, led by Jules Blais, from the University of Ottawa, confirmed the migratory bird species, the northern fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis), is the cause of the pollutants' presence.
The findings suggest that the birds carry pollutants like DDT and mercury, and deposit them in sites where other animals feed;b contributing to the high levels of industrial chemicals found in some Arctic populations.
Blais told BBC News, "We were studying a population of northern fulmars on Devon Island in the Canadian Arctic, specifically at Cape Vera which is one of the most northern and isolated fulmar colonies in North America. There's a large breeding colony, about 10,000 pairs at this location; and what we've been doing is looking at the distribution of some of these chemicals like PCBs and mercury and DDT in areas near the breeding colony."
Sites very close to breeding colonies are enriched in nitrogen, which comes from guano, bird excrement.
Blais found that sites high in nitrogen also contained elevated levels of DDT. The locations where fulmars visited showed levels of HCB 10 times higher, mercury 25 times higher and DDT 60 times higher than in the surrounding area; suggesting that the chemicals were also deposited in guano.
The research is published in the journal, Science.
