Feast marks start of global chemical ban

A select group of Iqaluit residents and visitors recently shared a lavish spread of seal, whale, caribou and char with Inuit leaders to celebrate the official start of an international ban on chemicals known to trickle their way into the northern food chain.

Sheila Watt-Cloutier, chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, hosted the festivities on May 17 with the National Aboriginal Health Organization, to highlight how the international convention is intended to protect future generations from eating country food contaminated by chemicals that come from plastics and paints.

More than 50 countries have ratified an international treaty, known as the Stockholm Convention, which bans or severely restricts 12 of the world’s most environmentally dangerous chemicals, known as the dirty dozen. The United States has signed the agreement, but not ratified it, meaning their government hasn’t enacted any local legislation that backs the treaty.

Chemicals covered by the agreement include PCBs, which are used to insulate electric transformers and as additives in plastics and paint, and pesticides such as DDT.