Contaminants, diet, plasma fatty acids and smoking in Greenland 1999–2005 Bente Deutch a, ⁎ , Henning Sloth Pedersen a,b , Gert Asmund c , Jens C. Hansen a a Centre of Arctic Environmental Medicine, Aarhus University, Vennelyst Boulevard 6, DK 8000, Aarhus, Denmark b Primary Health Care Center, Nuuk, Greenland c National Environmental Research Institute, Roskilde, Denmark Received 11 July 2006; received in revised form 16 October 2006; accepted 24 October 2006 Available online 6 December 2006 Abstract Objectives: The purpose of this study is to monitor and assess human exposure to pollution in the Arctic which presents a potential future health risk for the local populations. Epidemiological studies in Greenland have shown that human blood levels of several organic contaminants are very high, especially in the North where people depend on local food. In East Greenland (Ittoqqortoormiit (Scoresbysund)) the population shows the highest blood levels of several persistent organic pollutants found in Arctic countries, especially PCB, the levels of which exceed Canadian guideline levels. As in other Arctic countries, the predominant source of these contaminants is the local diet. However, other factors such as smoking may influence the metabolism and thereby the accumulation of toxic substances. Study design: This project is part of the human health program of the ongoing circumpolar “Artic Monitoring and Assessment Programme”. Lifestyle, anthropometric factors, and dietary survey results covering 500 men and women from 6 Greenlandic districts were analyzed along with other factors blood lipids, fatty acid profiles, heavy metals and concentrations of persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Results: The dietary survey showed that the traditional food on the average provided 20–30% of the total energy intake. However, the relative monthly meal intake of seal, whale, polar bear, fish and game, and the composition of imported food, varied between districts. Seal and polar bear intake, and, in particular all the plasma n-3 fatty acids, were significantly correlated with organic contaminant concentrations, (betaHCH, chlordanes, DDTs, Hexachlorobenzene, Mirex, PCBs, and toxaphenes) p b 0.01 ⁎⁎ . After adjusting for age, district, dietary factors or plasma n-3 fatty acids, smoking was significantly correlated with high levels of all the above mentioned POPs. Conclusion: The main predictors of high contaminant levels in Greenland were age, district, male gender, smoking and high plasma n-3/n-6 ratio as a marker of high dietary intake of local marine mammals. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Greenland; Diet; Fatty acids; Smoking; Organic pollutants (POPs) 1. Introduction Epidemiological studies in Greenland have shown that human blood levels of various anthropogenic conta- minants are very high (AMAP, 1998). In Ittoqqortoor- miit (Scoresbysund) East Greenland the population shows the highest blood levels of several persistent organic pol- lutants found in Arctic countries especially PCB (Deutch and Hansen, 2000). As in other Arctic countries the direct source of these contaminants is the diet, and it is therefore important to monitor the diet and other factors which may Science of the Total Environment 372 (2007) 486 – 496 www.elsevier.com/locate/scitotenv ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +45 8942 6172; fax: +45 8942 6199. E-mail address: bd@mil.au.dk (B. Deutch). 0048-9697/$ - see front matter © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2006.10.043