International Polar Year 2007–2008 - WMO

PA R T T WO: IPY SCIENCE PR O G R A M
2.11 Human Health
Lead Authors:
Alan J. Parkinson and Susan Chatwood
Contributing Authors:
James Allen, Eva Bonefeld-Jorgensen, Bert Boyer, Dionne Gesink, Wilmar Igl, Rhonda
Johnson, Anders Koch, Merete Laubjerg, Marya Levintova, Brian McMahon, Gerry
Mohatt, Jay Van Oostdam, Aria Rautio, Boris Revich, Manon Simard and Kue Young
Reviewers:
Chris Furgal and Russel Shearer
Introduction and Overview
While health research is not new to international
collaborations, International Polar Year (IPY) 2007–
2008 was the first IPY to include human dimensions
as a thematic area of study. The theme for the human
dimension was established to “investigate the
cultural, historical, and social processes that shape the
sustainability of circumpolar human societies, and to
identify their unique contributions to global cultural
diversity and citizenship” (Rapley et al., 2004).
This chapter will introduce the circumpolar health
context, and then provide an overview of the history
which informed health research activities during IPY
2007–2008 and highlight the activities which arose as
a result of this initiative.
The IPY activities related to human health primarily
focused on polar regions with permanent human
inhabitants (Fig. 2.11-1). Nevertheless, it should be
recognized that locations such as Svalbard and
Antarctica are inhabited by transient populations,
and have rich histories in science and exploration.
The legacy lives on as these populations continue
to be primarily made up of scientists, explorers and
occupational workers (including passing shipping
traffic in Antarctica and coal miners in Svalbard). Both
Antarctica and Svalbard have international treaties
which support an environment for international
activity. Despite the high level of scientific activity
in these regions, scientific programs that explore
the human health of these populations were
underdeveloped during IPY. Human health needs
in these populations tend to focus on emergency
medicine, telehealth, rescue and expedition medicine
and human response to isolation, cold and remote
environments. Populations are small, so studies tend
to be descriptive or qualitative. In some instances,
human health research at the remote polar stations has
been used to inform and better understand elements
of human behavior in space (http://humanresearch.
jsc.nasa.gov/analogs/analog_antarctica.asp).
Communities such as Argentinean Esperanza Base in
Antarctica and Longyearbyen in Svalbard have family
residents, and medical services tend to be based on
standards of the nation state: Argentina for the base
in Antarctica and Norway in Svalbard. Each of these
locations focuses on acute care and utilizes a medivac
system to relocate individuals who are no longer
able to work for any medical reason. Individuals with
chronic conditions tend to self select and do not
relocate to these remote locations.
Although substantial progress has occurred in the
health of circumpolar peoples over the past 50 years,
considerable disparities still exist across different
regions and populations; these disparities tend to
predominate in Indigenous populations (Young and
Bjerregaard, 2008). Indicators such as life expectancy
at birth (LE 0 ) and infant mortality capture these
regional differences. In North America, LE 0 for the
State of Alaska is the same as that of the rest of the
United States. For Alaska Natives, however, there is a
gap of about 5 years. In the three northern territories
of Canada, the values decline as the proportion of
Indigenous people increases, such that there is a
difference of 11 years between the territory of Nunavut
and the Canadian national value. In Scandinavia, there
is essentially no difference between the northern
and the national LE 0 . Russia as a country is suffering
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