386 



STATEMENT OF DR. JOHN MTODAUGH, STATE OF ALASKA 



EPIDEMIOLOGIST 



Dr. MiDDAUGH. Senator Murkowski, thank you for inviting me to 

 testify before the Senate Select Committee on InteUigence today. 

 Before I begin my remarks on the important topic of this hearing, 

 I would like to thank you for your effective leadership in introduc- 

 ing and gaining passage of the Arctic Research and Policy Act and 

 for your commitment to Arctic residents by including health as an 

 integral part of this important legislation. 



During the past six months increasing attention has focused on 

 unverified reports that the former Soviet Union dumped vast quan- 

 tities of contaminants into the Arctic Ocean. Most feared are re- 

 ports of disposal of radioactive wastes and nuclear reactors of scut- 

 tled submarines and icebreakers. Great concern also exists that 

 large qu£intities of potentially toxic heavy metals and persistent or- 

 ganic hydrocarbons have contaminated the Russian Arctic and sub- 

 Arctic. Although these reports have not yet been verified, they have 

 great concern. Many of us have seen the reports and photographs 

 of the tragic and catastrophic industrial contamination in Rumania 

 documented by the National Geographic. We have heard earlier 

 today fi*om Mr. Gates of extensive environmental contamination in 

 the former Soviet Union. 



In order to respond to these reports, the United States must take 

 aggressive action £ind assume leadership. We need to compile exist- 

 ing data that are available to help us understand the potential 

 threat. We need to assure adequate baseline data exists to enable 

 us to monitor and to detect future potential changes and establish 

 a monitoring program to provide constant and complete data. We 

 will need to know what is there, how much of which type of con- 

 taminant, and where are they. With this information, we will be 

 able to predict how the materials might cause problems. We will 

 be able to identify potentials for contaminants to mobilize and po- 

 tential pathways by which they might disperse. The effort will not 

 be easy. The science is complex and challenging. An effective effort 

 will require multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary communication, 

 collaboration, coordination and commitment. Fortunately, existing 

 agencies and organizations exist to implement needed planning and 

 action. I speak, for example, of the i^ctic Monitoring and Assess- 

 ment Program, AMAP. Called the Finnish Initiative, it has as its 

 primary purpose the evaluation of Arctic environmental contami- 

 nants. Four of six priority areas identified by AMAP are those of 

 greatest concern regarding potential contamination fi-om the former 

 Soviet Union; radioactivity, heavy metals, organochlorines and oil 

 pollution. AMAP has the potential to be the international vehicle 

 by which Arctic nations can coordinate and collaborate. But while 

 AMAP has the potential, the United States must assure the job 

 gets done. We must make available adequate resources so that im- 

 plementation of monitoring, assessment and evaluation receives ap- 

 propriate priority. The United States is well represented at this 

 time to AMAP by the Environmentsil Protection Agency and the 

 National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, but we 

 must assure adequate support for involvement of the National Ma- 

 rine Fisheries, United States Fish and Wildlife Service, United 

 States Geological Survey, and the United States Department of En- 



