Climate Change Research in the Arctic Must Include Polar Native Communities

Abstract

Background: Concern about the melting of polar ice has tended to highlight wildlife, but not humans. However, research on Arctic climate change is crucial for developing effective public health policies for native communities who reside in the polar region. These include Inuit, Alaskan Natives, and Sami in Norway. Because there has been a dramatic rise in sea levels and a loss of sea ice in the Arctic, our intent is to share the needed epidemiology to address this issue. We aim encourage collaborative research from climate change among the indigenous communities of Canada, US, Norway, Sweden, Russia, Denmark, Iceland, and Greenland. Methods: We examined the epidemiology literature suggesting where climate change might have the most impact on native health. We considered the research methods needed to conduct polar health studies.Findings: Arctic climate change appears to be linked with snowmobile trauma and hunting injuries, village relocation and adolescent mental health impacts, zoonotic infections, especially from sled dogs, tuberculosis and other environmental infections, housing deterioration and cold injury, skin cancer and immunocompromise, mosquito and tick-born infections, food-born botulinum outbreaks, contamination and alterations in diet, alcoholism, diabetes, and asthma. Because many workers in northern mining and oil extraction industries include native employees, we must assess whether climate modification and workplace exposures interact. Measuring the amounts of exposure to an altered environment and appropriate comparison groups are research challenges to valid health studies. Including native children in any study will require utmost sensitivity.Synthesis/conclusions: We will emphasize effective communication with native communities and northern governments leading to ethical public health studies. We hope to encourage the development of new epidemiology research and curricula for international Arctic health in order to measure impacts of climate change on indigenous residents.