#UnordinaryIdeas #UnordinaryPlaces #ResearchFaroeIslands  #Health #PublicHealth  #Marine

Visit Faroe Islands Meetings is well connected to a leading researcher on the islands, Prof. Pál Weihe, who has already brought  many international  conferences to the Faroe Islands. He is also the Ambassador and protagonist in the video about the medical and health knowledge cluster:

One of his most prestigious projects  as the Director of the Department of Occupational Medicine and Public Health is an ongoing research into how contamination through eating whale meat and blubber has an effect on pregnant women and their children.

Since the mid 80s to now 5 cohorts of mother and child pairs have been taken into account – starting with  prospective research on the level of mercury in the test persons. To date around 2300 mother-child pairs were examined – the examination of the children starting at the age of 7 only, and then on to adult age.

High mercury levels in children can cause neuropsychological deficiencies.  The examinations are thorough – comprising not only neuropsychological, but also physical examinations in co-operation with pediatric specialists and in exchange with international colleagues from Tokyo and Boston to make sure all available expertise is included in the research. Based on the findings from the research, Prof. Weihe and the Department Occupational Medicine and Public Health gave official recommendation to stop eating whale meat due to its toxicants and to prevent the harmful levels particularly to the children.

Later on, other substances like PCB (polychlorinated biphenyls – persistent organic pollutants) and PFASs (poly- and perfluoroalkyl – man-made long-lasting fluorinated substances) were  included in the research to test their effect on the immune system. Both mercury, PFASs and PCB are high in both whale meat and blubber, whereas the levels in fish of any kind that are caught and eaten around the Faroe Islands are low. The whales accumulate the mercury because they feed high in the food chain.  Mercury in the oceans has increased due to human activities since the industrial revolution and so have persistent organic pollutants like PCB and PFASs.

As the half-life period of mercury is very short, it is recommended that especially young women stop eating whale meat. This has led to a substantially lower consumption among Faroese women, and a correspondingly low level of mercury in their blood.

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Pál Weihe, 68, is head of the Faroe Islands’ Department of Occupational Medicine and Public Health. He was instrumental in bringing about a change to the Faroese diet, with profound cultural implications—the pilot whale had long been a diet staple until Weihe started his investigations. Babies born in the 1980s, he found, had high levels of mercury in their blood that correlated with the amount of pilot whale their mothers had eaten: the mercury was shown to negatively affect the children’s brain. His campaign to reduce whale consumption has made him unpopular at times, but it has been overall successful.

His story has now been made into a film, The Islands and the Whales (http://theislandsandthewhales.com/screenings).”

(Quote taken from the bmj  https://www.bmj.com/content/361/bmj.k1483.full)

Prof. Pál Weihe ResearchGate 192 publications https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Pal_Weihe

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This story is part of the new Ambassador Initiative of Visit Faroe Islands Meetings to share information about leading knowledge clusters on the Islands that might be relevant for international meeting planners and business communities.

Visit Faroe Islands Meetings

… supported by a new profile on LinkedIn and a separate twitter account for meeting planners to follow the carefully curated and focused narratives.

Please join the new channels and share the excitement of inspirational nature, people, ideas and stories!

Make sure you don’t miss the stories and initiatives across the knowledge clusters available on the Faroe Islands:

–         Health

–         Sport

–         Marine

–         Connectivity

–         Various others like fashion, literature and language, food and more

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Visit Faroe Islands Meetings and partners will be happy to meet with you at IMEX, stand F240  and discuss how our local expertise can be integrated in your conference, make sure to set up an appointment with Annleyg Lamhauge there!

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