A UNBC professor has contributed to an international declaration aimedat drawing attention to the effects of mercury pollution. It wasreleased today by the world’s leading mercury scientists.

UNBC Health Sciences professor Laurie Chan has been involved withmercury research for more than a dozen years and has worked withaboriginal communities throughout Canada’s North to document the humanhealth effects of mercury contamination, as well as the effects ofother environmental pollutants. Chan was one of 40 scientists worldwide– and one of only eight Canadians – to contribute to the internationaldeclaration, which presents 33 main findings based on mercury’satmospheric sources, its effects on wildlife and fisheries, and healtheffects.

“The most challenging part of the research is identifying the subtleeffects of even very low levels of mercury in people,” says Dr. Chanwho is a BC Leadership Chair in Aboriginal Environmental Health. “Someof my research has documented that the presence of even small amountsof mercury can affect the biochemistry of the brain and possibly slowdown the communication between brain cells. The research we’re doingnow is quantifying the levels of mercury in people and what are thesubtle effects.”

Mercury is produced primarily from the burning of fossil fuels. It isone of the pollutants that generally appear at high levels in the Northbecause of predominant wind currents and the fact that mercury becomesmore stable in cold temperatures. The International Declaration onMercury Pollution states that three times more mercury now falls fromthe sky than before the Industrial Revolution. The human fetus isparticularly at risk, with low levels of mercury exposure in uterolinked to lower intelligence. The increased concentration of mercury infish and wildlife also puts aboriginal people at high risk for mercuryexposure. "It is important to emphasize that not all fish is bad," saysDr. Chan. "Salmon, for example, have little mercury and eating morefish generally benefits heart health and brain development."

“This is a global issue and a local issue,” says Dr. Chan, who iscurrently working with three aboriginal communities in northern BC todocument mercury exposure and its health effects. “The MercuryDeclaration came out of an international conference that attracted morethan 1,000 scientists. It gave us a platform to hopefully influencepublic policy.”

Contact:
Dr. Laurie Chan, BC Leadership Chair, UNBC – 250.960.5237
Rob van Adrichem, Director of Media and Public Relations, UNBC – 250.960.5622

 

Media Downloads

Click here to access high-resolution photographs and a summary of the "Declaration on Mercury Pollution"