Commemorating an Interdisciplinary Arctic Scientist

Lately I've been studying the environmental history of Arctic contaminants, including the flows of knowledge about contaminants into, out of, and around the Arctic.  There's quite an extensive history of contaminants in the region: radioactive fallout in the 1950s, DDT and other chemicals in the 1960s, and more recent concerns about a diverse array of persistent organic pollutants (POPs).  POPs became the focus of the 2001 Stockholm Convention: an interesting and perhaps unique example of a global agreement that referred to a specific region � the Arctic � as especially vulnerable.

A big reason the Arctic is considered vulnerable to POPs is because marine mammals � walruses, narwhals, beluga whales � are a big part of the diet of Indigenous people there.  And these mammals, being at the top of the food chain, concentrate contaminants in their fatty tissue.  Numerous studies have documented these chemicals in the blood and breast milk of Indigenous people in the Arctic.

I've written in a previous post  about the significance of surprises in this history: that they provide clues regarding unconscious assumptions about nature, such as the notion that the Arctic is pristine, and so contaminants "should" not be expected to be found there.

But another interesting aspect of Arctic contaminants science is worth highlighting: the historical importance of interdisciplinary thinking.  Scientists generally organize their work in terms of their home discipline � say, chemistry, ecology, or toxicology.  But some scientists have been able to "jump the tracks," and look at the world in a different way than they were trained, so as to make connections between previously separate disciplines.  And this practice of forming interdisciplinary perspectives has been an important part, historically, of Arctic contaminants science.

Eric Dewailly, a medical scientist at Laval University, is an interesting example of interdisciplinary thinking.  Back in 1987 he was one of the first scientists to detect contaminants in the bodies of northern Indigenous peoples, through his studies in Nunavik (Northern Quebec).  In the years after that discovery, he became a leader in connecting medical expertise with toxicology and ecological science, so as to work out the actual risks presented by contaminants in country foods consumed in the north.

Dewailly's work also involved developing new ways of conducting community-based research: building trust with northern communities, and formulating advice that would help northerners make their own decisions about their food.  A great deal of the knowledge that we now have about Arctic contaminants, and recent success in controlling these contaminants, particularly through the Stockholm Convention, is due to work by Dewailly and by other scientists that he mentored.

It was sad, then, to learn that Dewailly died last week (on June 17), killed by a landslide on the island of R�union, in the Indian Ocean, where he was vacationing with his family.  It is a great loss for Arctic science.