Scientists said East Greenland is a hot spot for pollution as polar bears and ringed seals can be eaten there.
Scientists warned Thursday that the long-term health of East Greenland’s Inuit Hunters is under threat due to the so-called “eternal chemicals” in the atmosphere and the diet of polar bears and sealed meat.
Christian Sonne, a graduate of Aafs University in Denmark, said the ITTOQORTOOROMIIT’s fishing and hunting community has levels of chemicals, also known as PFA (chemicals 13 times higher than the risk threshold).
Remote zones are particularly affected by contamination, as chemicals are transported there by nearby oceans and airflows, says Sonne, author of the study in the question published in Journal Cell Reports Sustainability.
“East Greenland is truly a hot spot for human pollution because it can eat polar bears that don’t hunt in Russia or in Svalbad, and both ringing seals that accumulate PFA and other harmful substances,” he told AFP.
“These substances are very persistent in the environment and within the body, so they will be very high in the next 75-100 years.”
Home to just 300 people, the region has the highest PFA levels in the world. Except for those related to firefighters, factory workers and groundwater pollution in Sweden and Italy, Sonne said.
He attributed it to the long distance travel of chemicals in the air and water, which ended up in the body of the animal, especially the ones that were subsequently eaten.
To reduce their level, he advised the Inuit community to diversify what they eat.
He also called for stricter regulations to force fewer toxic compounds that are unlikely to be widely used in the industry.
High mercury, PCB level
PFA is a synthetic chemical first developed in the 1940s to withstand intense heat and fight back against water and greenery.
They have since been used in a vast range of household and industrial products, including food packaging, makeup, stain-free dough, non-stick cooking utensils, flame retardants, and more.
Studies suggest that exposure to PFAS chemicals is associated with cancer, obesity, thyroid, liver and kidney disease, high cholesterol, low birth weight, and even weaker response to vaccines.
Polychlorinated biphenyls, which were submerged by the United States in 1979, are industrial chemicals that affect the immune, reproduction, nervousness and endocrine systems, and are highly likely to cause cancer.
They also bind to sediments and threaten fish and wildlife.
The situation varies across Arctic territory depending on the flow and wind of the ocean.
Sonne said Inuit Hunter also has very high levels of mercury and perhaps the highest level of artificial PCB chemicals in the world.
More details: Christian Sonne et al, sustainable PFA use for Ubiquatous Global threatens Arctic indigenous peoples over the next decades, reported by Cell Sustainability (2025). doi: 10.1016/j.crsus.2025.100341
©2025 AFP
Quote: Greenland Inuit faces health risks from dietary “eternal chemicals” retrieved on March 14, 2025 from https://phys.org/2025-03-greenland-inuit-health-chemicals-diet.html (March 13, 2025)
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