[CPEO-MEF] FORMER SITES, INDIGENOUS PEOPLE: Studying PCBs on Alaska’s St. Lawrence Island

[Lenny Siegel <LSiegel@cpeo.org>]

$2.9M NIH grant funds study of toxic pollutants’ effects on Indigenous community in Alaska 

Mirage News
July 29, 2021


On Alaska’s St. Lawrence Island, members of the Indigenous Yupik community follow many of the traditional cultural practices that have sustained their people for centuries in the harsh, Arctic climate. Yet despite their remote location deep in the Bering Sea, their land, water, traditional food sources and bodies carry the toxic burden of modern life.

Industrial chemicals including polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, have been found in their blood at rates six to 10 times higher than those of the average American. The Yupik people also experience high rates of cancer and endocrine system disorders.

New research by Amina Salamova, associate scientist at the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University, will explore the prevalence of toxic chemicals near two former defense sites on the island, as well as the risks those chemicals pose to the people who live there. The team of researchers leading the project, which is called “Restoring Northeast Cape for the Health and Well-Being of the Yupik Communities of St. Lawrence Island, Alaska,” was recently awarded a $2.9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.

…

For the entire article, see
https://www.miragenews.com/2-9m-nih-grant-funds-study-of-toxic-pollutants-603923/

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Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
A project of the Pacific Studies Center
LSiegel@cpeo.org
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650-961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org
Author: DISTURBING THE WAR: The Inside Story of the Movement to Get Stanford University out of Southeast Asia - 1965–1975 (See http://a3mreunion.org)

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