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Last month a few friends from the Takla Lake First Nations, a remote reserve north of Fort St. James, were in town to talk about their study of industrial contamination of wild game in the area.

Called the Healthy Land Healthy Future Project, the study is funded by Health Canada as part of a national program aimed at eliminating the perception that wild food is increasingly contaminated with industrial pollutants.

Richard Lawrence of Health Canada, who is involved in the project, said that the purpose of the study is ultimately about addressing the fear of contamination that is “pushing people towards less healthy western diets.”

Diabetes, cancer, higher rates of heart disease, and obesity are all growing problems in First Nations communities, I was told at the workshop, and traditional foods can be excellent ways to live healthier.

“In general, the greater the extent of perceived risk of exposure to contaminants through the consumption of traditions foods, the more reluctant First Nations are to harvest such foods, so, instead, they acquire western foods as an alternative,” said Lawrence. “The perception of risk can present a barrier to accessing traditional foods which prevents First Nations from obtaining the benefits of traditional food consumption.”

Nowhere is this concern more pervasive perhaps than in Takla, the site of substantial resource development including logging, mining, and a failed attempt at building a railroad to Alaska.  Margo French, who is working on the study gathering soil and animal samples, is familiar with many of the contaminated sites throughout the area, including Bralorne Mines.

“When we were kids our families would camp there,” she said.  Today it is on the list of crown contaminated sites, an abandoned mercury mine that exhales mercury vapours from its soil at levels considered unsafe.

Margo French stands in front of the remnants of the Bralorne Mine

During the war, when they operated it, it was one of the largest mercury mines in Canada. They would ship out glass tubes filled with mercury like giant thermometers on barges.  At least one barge went down, and thousands of pounds of mercury with it.  Other remnants of the mine, like bricks, were allegedly used in the hearth of a local guide’s lodge. Another story was that a road crew used contaminated fill to crown a stretch of road, which, in the dry summer heat would be sent up in clouds of dust to be eaten by the truck and its driver behind.

“Many of the families who grew up harvesting in this area now suffer from mercury- and heavy-metal-related illnesses,” says the Talka Band’s backgrounder on mining. “To date no human health studies have been done to address the Takla people’s health concerns.”

Other concerns have related to the aerial spraying of herbicides to control non-marketable plant species and the lingering effects of a railroad and a nearby sawmill and wood-treatment plant that was buried, leaving the soil saturated in PCP, garbage, and oil.

While the study aims to eliminate the cause of the fear- contamination- it may not determine that there is nothing to be afraid of.

“It is important to note that some traditional foods do have contaminants but also contain valuable nutrients not easily replaced by market foods, which is why it is valuable to undertake research to assess the levels of risk and to weigh risks vs. benefits,” said Lawrence.

James Steidle

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