Pregnant women living in Nunavik in northern Quebec are increasingly being exposed to potentially harmful chemical compounds commonly found in consumer products.
Pregnant women living in Nunavik in northern Quebec are increasingly being exposed to potentially harmful chemical compounds commonly found in consumer products.
This is one of the findings of new study by a group of Canadian researchers including Élyse Caron-Beaudoin, an assistant professor in the department of health and society and the department of physical and environmental sciences at the University of Toronto Scarborough.
The study, published in the journal Environment International, focused on perfluroalkyl acids (PFAAs), which are used in a wide range of consumer products including non-stick coatings for cooking ware, water and stain repellents, food packaging, paints, cosmetics and cleaning products. It found that PFAA concentrations in pregnant Inuit women were twice as high as those in a representative sample of Canadian women.
“It’s an environmental injustice because people’s food in the Arctic is being contaminated by chemicals made far away from their homes,” says Caron-Beaudoin, an expert on toxicology as well as public and environmental health.
Continue reading at University of Toronto.
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