ICC writes “Dear polluter” letters

ICC Canada is targeting Southern polluters that poison the Arctic with dioxins.

Sheila Watt-Cloutier, president of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference for Canada, has sent letters to the 10 worst polluters of the North, alerting them of their harmful practices and demanding that they reduce emissions.

The 10 polluters, located in the United States and southern Canada, produce more than a quarter of the dioxins that contaminate the Arctic.

Dioxins are carried by wind to the North, where cold weather causes them to settle out onto the land and water. There, they accumulate in the food chain and are eventually passed on to Inuit hunters and fishermen.

In humans, dioxins cause cancer, harm fetal development and reduce the body’s ability to fight off disease.

The 10 companies were identified in a trailblazing American study last October that traced dioxin pollution in the Arctic to 44,000 specific sources in the South.