Toxic Chemicals Found in Inuits Are a Warning

“Ancestral Diet Gone Toxic” (Jan. 13) reports that Greenland’s Inuit tribes contain levels of toxic chemicals in their bodies so high that some human tissues could be classified as hazardous waste. This should serve as a wake-up call to the public and policymakers in California, where billions of pounds of industrial chemicals and pesticides are released each year.

Recently, the University of California and state health agencies tested blood and fat tissue samples of women living in California for toxic flame retardants, called polybrominated diphenyl ethers, and found them to be among the highest in the world. Such evidence prompted the state to ban two classes of PBDEs by 2008. Studies done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have detected nearly 100 chemicals in Americans’ bodies known to cause damage or suspected of causing damage to human health.

Many of the toxic substances detected in the Inuit people are products of industrial operations in the U.S. We have an opportunity to regulate the chemicals that are globally trespassing in our bodies and take a preventive, public health approach to environmental policy. Without a preventive approach, contamination in the environment, food supply and humans will only become worse.

Felix Aguilar MD

Co-President, Physicians for Social Responsibility

Los Angeles