Contamination of traditional foods by urban pollutants - namely, mercury & microbes

 

We integrated with team Eco-Six’s research by looking into the effects that anthropogenically introduced mercury, and urban pollutants, have on Canadian indigenous communities and their traditional food systems.

Urban activities such as fossil fuel extraction and passive wastewater treatment are the main culprits for the contamination of mercury and microbes in water. 

Studies have found that these contaminants accumulate in the tissues of important traditional food sources such as ducks, rabbits, and moose (Golzadeh et al., 2020). This has led to high rates of waterborne illness, and diseases (Daley et al., 2018).

Furthermore, pregnant Inuit women have higher blood mercury levels than non-indigenous pregnant women which have led to cognitive and visual developmental issues in their children (Adamou et al., 2020). If this problem continues, it is possible that Indigenous populations will move away from their traditional foods, which in turn may result in the prevalence of other health issues (Golzadeh et al., 2020).

 

The sharing of this information has allowed both teams to further our understanding of these pollutants and the effects they have on the Indigenous peoples of Canada.