Arctic pollution 2011

Previous Arctic Council AMAP Working group assessments on Mercury in the Arctic, published 1997 and 2002, reported that a substantial amount of mercury in the Arctic arrives via long-range transport from human sources at lower latitudes and that, owing to their traditional diet, some Arctic populations receive high dietary exposure to mercury, raising concern to human health. The overall goal of this assessment was to update information relevant to answering the question: "What controls the mercury levels in the Arctic and what are the effects on Arctic biota?"