Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
the spleen (0.53 to 1.4 µg/g wet weight) (Johansen et al.,
2007). Total mercury levels in the liver and kidneys from
Greenlanders were elevated by factors of 7-8 as compared
with values for similar organs from people in Denmark,
Norway, and Sweden, and were higher than the levels
found in the general populations of Spain, Poland, Korea,
and Japan (Johansen et al., 2007). Signifi cantly elevated
mercury concentrations have been reported in the brains
of Greenlanders; an autopsy study of 17 Greenlanders and
12 Danes found that the median total mercury concentra-
tion was 174 ng/g wet weight in Greenlanders and 4 ng/g in
Danes (Pedersen et al., 1999).
The way of life for Aboriginal peoples in North America
is very much defi ned by the ability to borrow from the
natural capital of their ecosystem. Today, traditional foods
still remain central to cultural, social, and spiritual well-
being in many regions (e.g., Condon et al., 1995; Receveur
et al., 1998; Van Oostdam et al., 1999, 2005). Hunting, fi sh-
ing and gathering of wild resources and the subsequent
sharing of those items with individuals throughout the
community are social activities that bring individuals,
families, and generations together and are often the har-
binger for celebrations and festivities (van Oostdam et al.,
2005). A number of studies have documented the follow-
ing cultural, social and economic benefi ts of collecting and
using traditional food among adult Inuit in fi ve regions of
the Canadian Arctic: (a) it contributes to physical fi tness
and good health; (b) it provides people with healthy food;
(c) it favors sharing in the community; (d) it is an essen-
tial part of the culture; (e) it is an occasion for adults to
display responsibility for their children; (f) it provides
education about the natural environment; (g) it contrib-
utes to children's education; (h) it provides skills in sur-
vival; and (i) it provides skills in food preparation at home
Kuhnlein et al. (2001). As one indigenous community elder
ruefully observed: “Inuit foods give us health, well-being
and identity. Inuit foods are our way of life. Total health
includes spiritual well-being. For us to be fully healthy, we
must have our foods, recognizing the benefi ts they bring.
Contaminants do not affect our souls. Avoiding food from
fear does” (Egede, 1995).
Balancing the risks of mercury exposure with the loss
of benefi cial traditional food raises several concerns (Van
Oostdam et al., 1999). When country food is compromised
by mercury contamination, more than Aboriginal peoples'
health is affected; their economy, culture, spiritual well-
being, and way of life are also threatened. The importance
of traditional foods is further stressed by the lack of healthy,
accessible, and economically viable nutrition alternatives in
many communities and for many individuals. Many market
foods are expensive and of lower nutritional value and they
deprive Aboriginal people of the cultural and social signifi -
cance and other benefi ts of hunting and consuming coun-
try food. Consequently, current risk-management programs
aimed at reducing the impacts of mercury-contaminated
traditional food raise problems that go far beyond the usual
confi nes of public health and cannot be resolved simply
by risk-based health advisories or food substitutions. It is a
form of cultural discrimination.
In a review article, O'Neill (2004) has argued that the
regulatory shift in policy from risk reduction to risk avoid-
ance is a promoter of environmental injustice. In the fi rst
place, the burden of undertaking risk-avoidance measures
falls disproportionately on communities of color, Southeast
Asian immigrants, and indigenous peoples, which are
likely to be most vulnerable. Nor do risk avoidance mea-
sures impose their burdens equally. Communities who are
disproportionately exposed are called on to change their
Do Fish-Consumption Advisories Promote
Environmental Injustice?
For most contaminants, the focus of environmental regula-
tory efforts has been on risk reduction by targeting the fi rst
link in the chain that connects environmental contamina-
tion with adverse impacts on human health, namely pre-
venting or limiting emissions and remediating contaminated
sites. Fish advisories warn of health risks from the consump-
tion of contaminated fi sh and are intended to reduce expo-
sure through reduced or eliminated fi sh consumption. For
mercury, the widely accepted risk-management strategy by
regulatory bodies has become risk avoidance, in which the
focus is on breaking the chain link at the point of human
exposure (O'Neill, 2004). As such, the onus is placed on indi-
viduals who bear the burdens of mercury exposure to avoid
the risk by changing their fi sh-consumption practices. This
strategy places the environmental justice communities in a
lose-lose situation: either eat the fi sh and suffer the health
effects from contaminants or do not eat the fi sh and suffer
the health and cultural effects of losing a critical diet food.
Various studies reviewed above converge on the fact that
the adverse health impacts of mercury pollution fall pri-
marily on poorly resourced and geographically vulnerable
communities of indigenous people, Asia immigrants, and
urban poor. For the Native Americans, decreased consump-
tion of traditional food is likely to have negative health
consequences by changing the balanced dietary intakes
of total fat, saturated fat, and sucrose; lowering the intake
of vitamins A, D, and E, ribofl avin and B
6
; and reducing
intakes of the important minerals iron, zinc, copper, mag-
nesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, and selenium
(Kuhnlein et al., 2004). A shift away from traditional-food
diets has also been linked to rises in obesity, diabetes, and
cardiovascular disease among Aboriginal peoples in the
United States and Canada (Young, 1993; Young et al., 1993).
Increased compensatory consumption of saturated fat,
sucrose, and alcohol in diets has led to higher incidences
of gallbladder disease, tooth decay, alcoholism, and fetal
alcohol syndrome. Poor diet (which excludes the traditional
fi sh protein) has also been associated with higher inci-
dences of anemia, otitis media, a variety of infections, and
some kinds of cancer (Kuhnlein and Receveur, 1996).
