Environmental exposure in indigenous communities: an international perspective

There are more than 7000 spoken languages in the world today and many others that have already disappeared. The number of languages in relation to the number of countries (192 members of the United Nations) gives some indication of the number of indigenous communities there are in the world. Many of these communities are at various stages of integration into more dominant cultures, but many others struggle to maintain a traditional lifestyle. Many are subsistence communities that depend upon local sources of food and whose way of life is threatened by encroachment of more dominant cultures. There are, of course, different environmental threats in the various communities, but they fall into several categories that are common to many of them. There is often lack of access to medical care and disease-protective actions like immunizations. There is greater vulnerability than in more conventional societies to inclement weather, and this will become more serious with climate change. There is often contamination of local traditional animal and plant foods by chemicals because of long-range transport of contaminants by air or water or because of industries located in geographic areas close to indigenous communities where there is little governmental regulation. Life expectancy in many indigenous communities is much less than in more developed mainstream societies. However, these problems, which are widely viewed as being caused by poverty and lack of education, are balanced by the value to these communities of maintaining a traditional lifestyle that would otherwise simply disappear into the mainstream cultures of the various countries.