She and the other members of the group were planning on being in Geneva for the meeting, but the fifth COVID wave scuppered that plan. So Lucy was in Montreal with Laval University Professor and researcher M\u00e9lanie Lemire at an Air BnB. Fellow researcher Amira Aker at Laval University was at a different location in Montreal due to COVID. Eva Kruemmel, Research and Policy Advisor for the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) \u2013 a veteran of the POPRC process and other contaminants meetings \u2013 was in Germany.
The Montreal trio woke up each day at 3 am to get ready for the 9:30 am start \u2013 Geneva time! During the weeklong meeting, they made the case to support the ban on a group of 4,700 chemicals known as the \u201cForever Chemicals.\u201d They are manmade chemicals used in many products such as waterproof clothes, take-out containers, food packaging, carpets and textiles, plastics, electronics, and dental floss. They have long names such as perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl. They\u2019re known as PFAS, for short.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.makivvik.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/lucy-melanie.jpg?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1\")
Results of the Qanuilirpitaa? 2017 study were published in December 2021. The report is available online at https:\/\/nrbhss.ca\/en\/nrbhss\/public-health\/health-surveys\/qanuilirpitaa-2017.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Stephen Hendrie During the last week of January, a team of Inuit and researchers participated virtually in a meeting held in Geneva, Switzerland, reviewing a [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14136,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"taqralik-issues":[421,126],"class_list":["post-14129","taqralikonline","type-taqralikonline","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","taqralik-issues-2022-winter","taqralik-issues-winter"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.makivvik.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/taqralikonline\/14129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.makivvik.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/taqralikonline"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.makivvik.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/taqralikonline"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.makivvik.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/taqralikonline\/14129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14401,"href":"https:\/\/www.makivvik.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/taqralikonline\/14129\/revisions\/14401"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.makivvik.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.makivvik.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"taqralik-issues","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.makivvik.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/taqralik-issues?post=14129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Lucy Grey says finding a way to describe the \u201cforever chemicals\u201d in Inuktitut took some back and forth with translators. The literal translation is Sujurqajangitutsajait \u14f1\u152a\u1550\u1583\u152d\u1595\u158f\u1450\u1466\u14f4\u152d\u1403\u1466 – \u201cones that cannot break down,\u201d says Lucy. \u201cThis is very true of what it is. They come up into the Arctic ecosystem and they don\u2019t break down, so they end up in our bodies, they end up in the food chain.\u201d She stressed that as with previous battles with mercury and PCBs in Nunavik, the benefits of eating country food outweigh the risks.
At the POPRC-17 meeting, the group brought the latest data from the Nunavik Inuit Health Survey \u201cQanuilirpitaa?\u201d 2017. They also brought results from the \u201cPregnancy Wellness with Country Foods\u201d project.
On Tuesday, January 25, they held a virtual side event to explain how these \u201cforever chemicals\u201d affect Inuit. Lucy Grey said, \u201cthe most concerning for us Inuit are the human health effects. The global community can find innovative ways to replace these chemicals with safe ones and still produce consumer goods. We shouldn\u2019t be having these effects.\u201d
While Lucy Grey put a human face on the issue for the estimated 200 participants online and in-person in Geneva, M\u00e9lanie and Amira brought their data alive using a PowerPoint presentation. It was a collaboration between 11 researchers in seven organizations.
The key findings indicate that the blood levels of the forever chemicals are up to seven times higher in Inuit than in the general Canadian population. They are highest among elders, and this is true of the general Canadian population as well. While they are higher in Inuit who consume marine mammals, fish, and seafood, country foods remain the healthiest for Inuit to consume.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.makivvik.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/POPRC-17-2.jpg?resize=1024%2C682&ssl=1\")
Amira Aker says, \u201cthey affect the immune system, alter cholesterol levels, they\u2019re linked to asthma and thyroid hormones.\u201d M\u00e9lanie added, \u201cthey can unfortunately cross the placenta, and they can go to breast milk as well, so the prevention window is really during pregnancy, we don\u2019t want these chemicals going to the baby.\u201d
M\u00e9lanie credits Eva Kruemmel from ICC for helping them. \u201cShe mentored us. She was saying it would be fantastic if Canada could nominate these chemicals, and your data will be very important. And so we worked to publish our data, and presented it at the side event.\u201d
Kitty Gordon is the Assistant Director of Public Health for the Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services, and co-chair of the Nunavik Nutrition Health Committee. She contributed to the PowerPoint presentation at the side event. \u201cIt was pretty important to have an Inuit perspective at POPRC-17,\u201d she said. \u201cI think the more people know what\u2019s happening to our region, the better.\u201d
\u201cWorking together to make this happen was a really organic process,\u201d says Eva Kruemmel. \u201cIt\u2019s very important to have them listed on Schedule A for elimination. These chemicals are so persistent, there is really nothing that breaks them down, not even the sun, water, or bacteria.\u201d
At the close of the week, ICC issued a press release noting that Inuit scored a victory in working with Canada to have the group of \u201cforever chemicals\u201d treated all together using the precautionary principle. The formal submission by Canada was to regulate \u201clong-chain perfluorocarboxylic acids, their salts and related compounds.\u201d While it will take years to have the group of chemicals banned and replaced with safer ones, the process has begun.
Nunavik Inuit can be proud that the people who participated in the Qanuilirpitaa? research years ago have helped leaders make decisions which will have a beneficial effect for Inuit around the circumpolar regions, and for the rest of the planet, as these harmful chemicals are eliminated and eventually replaced.<\/p>\n\n\n\nHere’s the Data!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n