ARKHANGELSK, August 6. /TASS/. The Northern Arctic Federal University scientists will determine shares of toxic and essential substances in food products that are traditional for Arctic residents, Rimma Korobitsyna, a junior fellow at university's bio monitoring laboratory, told TASS. During the Arctic Floating University expedition, researchers sampled on the Kolguev Island more than 100 local products - fish: Arctic char, flounder, herring and others, poultry, venison, goose eggs, as well as salt.
"Our task is to identify risk factors for the health of Russian Arctic residents that are associated with the intake of chemical pollutants, such as heavy metals, and essential elements, with traditional food that they get themselves - migrating fish and poultry," the expert said. "Humans receive vital elements with food, while in the Arctic the share of traditional products that the residents get themselves...> reaches 80% of the total diet."
The laboratory works in the Nenets, Chukotka and Arkhangelsk Regions. In remote areas, scientists survey the locals to learn what people eat and take biological samples to determine pollutants and various elements. For example, they test blood for toxic elements such as mercury, lead, cadmium and arsenic. As for essential elements, they make tests for iodine, copper, manganese, selenium and others. Deficiency of those elements may significantly exacerbate adverse effects of toxicants.
"We conducted surveys on the Kolguev [Island] twice - in 2018 and 2022, and also in those years we took biological samples. First results show they have a decrease in toxic elements, which is encouraging, with the exception for mercury and cadmium, on the other hand, this leaves questions for future monitoring. However, simultaneously there is a decrease in some essential elements, which has a detrimental effect," she continued. This may result from the new coronavirus infection pandemic, though this is just an assumption. Perhaps there have been disrupted food supplies to the island, and the residents were taking more traditional products or, vice versa, they went hunting and fishing much less.
Sources of elements
During the surveys, the scientists learned what the locals prefer and what they don't like. For example, almost nobody on the Kolguev Island eats algae, considering them mud, although they are a valuable source of iodine, while iodized salt is not available on the island.
The researchers have seen almost no one eats certain local fish. "For example, cod, which is another excellent source of iodine. But they eat it very rarely in the season, they would say - we may eat it just once when it is really fresh. When frozen, with salt, they don't fancy the changed meat structure or the taste, and therefore that fish is not a priority for them," the scientist said.
The Kolguev Island is rich in barnacle goose, but the islanders prefer to hunt the bean goose, saying they don't really like the barnacle goose as it feeds mainly on algae which affect the meat taste. "The barnacle goose meat smells unpleasant, they said, thus they prefer the bean goose. That was the answer to our question why they do not eat the barnacle goose when they are so numerous there," she continued.
The scientists note the Kolguev Island residents' diet has been changing: it is easier for people to go shopping than to go hunting or fishing. "The traditional diet is shifting towards the European," she added.
Fish is normally the final link in the food chain, thus it accumulates both toxic and essential elements. Noteworthy, the expert said, if the fish contains, for example, mercury or arsenic, it would not mean eating it is out of question. When the concentration is below the maximum permissible rate, this fish could be eaten not often, not every other day, but rather twice a week. "In fact, according to our research, we can't say about positively bad fish, we have not identified such, that is, we have not identified rates exceeding the permissible levels," she said. "The only thing to mention is navaga and arsenic. The question here remains open, because we've got results much higher than the maximum levels, but that includes both organic and inorganic forms, both toxic and non-toxic." At the same time, navaga contains a lot of copper, zinc and selenium, which the body needs. The laboratory plans to develop its own methods to identify arsenic in fish, since this country's maximum permissible rates do not separate different forms of arsenic, and that is why very often the fish are rejected. Some countries differentiate between those forms.
The Arctic Floating University
The project's partners and sponsors are the Arkhangelsk Region's government, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, the Russian Geographical Society, VTB Bank, Norilsk Nickel, Roshydromet (the hydrometeorology service), the Russian Arctic National Park, the Floating University Coordination Center at MIPT (Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology; also known as PhysTech), the Nauka (Science) year-round youth educational center.
The Arctic Floating University's expeditions continue under the Science and Universities national project, implemented by Russia's Ministry of Science and Higher Education.