IU Scientist Studying Toxic Pollutants’ Effects On Alaska Community
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The indigenous Yupik community on Alaska’s St. Lawrence Island follows many traditional cultural practices that have kept their community alive for centuries, but their bodies still carry the toxic burden of modern life.
During the Cold War, the U.S. military built two strategic bases on the island, because it’s about 40 miles from the Russian coast. The bases have been closed for decades, but the clean-up efforts haven’t been completed.
Amina Salamova, an associate scientist at the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University, has collaborated with the Alaska Community Action on Toxics to learn how toxic chemicals from the two sites are putting the Yupik community at risk. They recently received a $2.9 grant from the National Institutes of Health to help with the research.
“There were concerns in the community about incidences of disease, including diabetes and cancer and that’s how this research initiated.”
She said the industrial chemicals, like polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, have been found in their blood at rates six to 10 times higher than the average American.
The project is in its 2nd phase, and Salamova said they have started focusing on the people who do the hunting.
“Some of the hunting grounds are on or near these abandoned military sites,” she said. “So, there is quite high exposure to people who do the hunting.”
The animals they are hunting such as seals can carry high levels of these contaminants.
“The traditional foods usually have high levels of PCBs and other contaminants in them, because these contaminants tend to accumulate in fat.”
Salamova and collaborators plan to collect samples of air, water, and traditional food sources to see where these people are exposed to these contaminants.
“We know that some of the contamination can be attributed to things like hazardous materials and construction debris from the former military sites, but we also know that Arctic communities are disproportionately impacted by long-range transport of persistent organic pollutants as they travel through the air and ocean currents,” she said. “Ultimately, our long-term goal is to help restore the island back to the Indigenous people so they can sustain their traditional lifestyle.”
She said once you clean up the contamination the environment starts responded. She’s seen this happen in some of her other projects and is hoping to see the contamination levels drastically go down once they start removing the debris from the military sites.
