From: Fortuine, Robert et al. 1993. The Health of the Inuit of North America: A Bibliography from the Earliest Times through 1990. University of Alaska Anchorage. Citation number 1903.
To show the changes over time of the rapidly increasing homeless population, the Municipality of Anchorage conducted a survey in 1992. This survey replicated Kelso et al. (1978). 310 homeless individuals were interviewed across 9 sites. Sampling was proportionately stratified by sex and location. There were no significant differences across the two studies in marital status, gender, employment status, and substance abuse. There were recent increases in the number of whites, blacks, number of recent arrivals, use of agencies for shelter rather than residential hotels, and low income. Therefore, the current homeless population is more mobile, poorer, and more dependent upon social agencies.
In the mid-20th century, Alaska Native people experienced the highest incidence of tuberculosis of any population group, ever. The crude mortality rate from tuberculosis in the Kotzebue area in the mid-1950s was three times the crude mortality rate from all causes today.
Concentrations of worldwide fallout 137Cs were measured in the lichen-caribou-Eskimo food chain of northern Alaska during the period 1962-79. Pronounced inputs of fallout occurred after major nuclear weapons tests in the atmosphere and 137Cs was transmitted through the food chain to Eskimos with about a 2-yr delay due to environmental parameters. Caribou (Rangifer tarandus) meat sampled during spring harvest contained 4 times the 137Cs concentration of lichens obtained from their winter range. Calculated caribou meat ingestion rates of Anaktuvuk Pass Eskimos during winter ranged from approximately 1 kg/day in 1964 to 0.16 kg/day in 1977. Several environmental factors affected seasonal patterns and amounts of 137Cs transferred through the food chain. Maximum 137Cs concentrations of approximately 20 nCi/kg body weight in ESkimos occurred in 1964 and have now decreased to approximately 0.5 nCi/kg, largely because of cultural and political factors. Radiation doses from 137Cs body burdens during the study period ranged from 60 mrad/yr in 1962 to approximately 140 mrad/yr during the 1962-64 maxima and decreased to 8 mrad/yr in 1979.
Notes
From: Fortuine, Robert et al. 1993. The Health of the Inuit of North America: A Bibliography from the Earliest Times through 1990. University of Alaska Anchorage. Citation number 832.
