Inuit Culture Examined: The lives of the Inuit people in greenalnd and how water pollution is destroying their culture and forcing them to change their traditions.

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Inuit Culture Examined

The lives of the Inuit people are very much at risk by consuming large amounts of PCB's, mercury and other toxins. As tradition has it, the Inuit people mostly eat what they can hunt, catch or find which usually include the latest marine mammals washed up on shore. Marine mammals by nature absorb great amounts of these toxins when they enter the ocean. The toxins are more commonly absorbed into the fat cells of the blubber, which makes up the main diet of the Inuit people who also use it throughout their culture. The consumption of blubber and its inherent pollutants has long term ramifications for the people and wildlife of Northern Greenland.

PCB's, also called polychlorinated biphenyls, are organic, chlorinated compounds typically found in manufacturing factories for use in the industries. PCBs were commonly used for many years in such applications as paints, adhesives, hydraulic systems, copying paper, as well as electrical equipment, but were banned in the US in 1977 when they were determined to be harmful to the environment and living systems.

Most of the current PCB contaminants in the US and western Europe come from sediment leakage of landfills from years ago, and in the American Arctic, military wastes contribute to the local PCB pollution. (Pfirman)

For many years, PCBs were released into the air and water by leaks, spills, disposal, and transport. PCBs linger in the air for approximately 45 days, travel long distances in the wind, and then settle onto particles and plant surfaces. Arctic terrestrial mammals seem to ingest PCBs through this method. In sea water, PCBs settle into the sediment, and are ingested by filter feeding organisms. PCBs also collect in great quantity at the sea-air interface, a concentration that may be as much as 10,000 times the level...