Northern exposure

	PHOTO: Owen Egan

Toxicologist Laurie Chan is determined to thoroughly understand the subjects he studies, which is why he has munched on fermented marine mammal blubber. No, he didn't like it much.

Chan, an associate professor with McGill's Centre for Indigenous People's Nutrition and Environment (CINE), examines what people eat in native communities up north. It's mostly animals and fish -- there isn't a whole lot to choose from, since fresh produce is prohibitively expensive if it's even available.

Trouble is, there are dangerous pollutants in the North that accumulate in the fatty tissues of wildlife. If that's all you're eating, "the levels of exposure can get quite high," Chan told the McGill Reporter. He is trying to come up with strategies for healthy northern eating that balance natives' traditional food sources against the health risks posed by such contaminants as heavy metals and radionuclides, and his work just got a big boost. Chan was recently named one of only six scientists across the country to earn a Northern Research Chair, a new five-year, $6.1 million initiative launched by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council. Chair proposals were developed with the support of northern communities -- that's already standard operating procedure for CINE. Representatives from aboriginal organizations sit on CINE's governing board and vet the centre's research projects. "We try to incorporate as much of the local traditional knowledge into the maximum scientific approach. We try to marry, to merge both of these," says Chan.

And while he might not be much of a blubber fan, Chan has quite enjoyed the other foods he has sampled up north -- even caribou kidney. "It's very delicious. It's crunchy."

War of the dandelions

PHOTO: Vadim Kudryavtsev