PCBS AND DIOXIN-LIKE COMPOUNDS IN PLASMA OF ADULT INUIT LIVING IN NUNAVIK (ARCTIC QUEBEC)

Inuit people residing in the Arctic are unusually exposed to organochl orines through their traditional diet which includes large quantities of sea mammal fat. Recently, 499 Inuit adults from Nunavik (Arctic Que bec) participated in a large health survey acid donated a blood sample for organochlorine and heavy metal analysis. Twenty pooled plasma sam ples were formed, each made of individual samples from the same age gr oup, sex, and region of residence, to allow for dioxin-like compound d etermination. The mean total concentration of PCBs and dioxin-like com pounds (the latter expressed in 2,3,7,8-TCDD toxic equivalents) were r espectively 4.1 mg/kg lipids and 184.2 ng/kg lipids, compared to 0.13 mg/kg lipids and 26.1 ng/kg lipids for three control pooled plasma sam ples from Southern Quebec. Total PCBs and dioxin-like compound concent rations were strongly correlated (r = 0.98; p < 0.0001), increased wit h age acid were greater in men than in women. Although the body burden s of PCBs and dioxin-like compounds are close to those which induced a dverse health effects in laboratory animals, dietary benefits from the sea-food based diet still outweigh the hypothetical health risks. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.