Toxic Surprises Contaminants and Knowledge in the Northern Environment

• Published in: Ice Blink pp. 421 - 464
• Main Author: Bocking, Stephen
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Calgary University of Calgary Press 24.01.2017
• Edition: 1
• DOI: 10.1515/9781552388563-012

In 2003, Sheila Watt-Cloutier, chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, described her people’s reaction to the discovery of elevated levels of contaminants in their bodies: “Imagine the shock, confusion, and rage that we initially felt when evidence of high levels of persistent organic pollutants was discovered in our cord blood and nursing milk in the mid-1980s. … We were being poisoned—not of our doing but from afar.” Inuit shock and outrage would eventually energize negotiations toward a global convention restricting these pollutants.¹ Scientists were also surprised. In 1987, Eric Dewailly, an environmental health researcher, found contaminants in breast milk