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Ukkusiksalik National Park, just 80 kilometres south of the Arctic Circle, is home to approximately tens-of-thousands of polar bears, on a good day that is.

In the near future, this number may not be so high.

Persistent organic pollutants like polychlorinated byphenyls, DDTs and dioxins are being found more and more in the fat of polar bears. These pollutants are blown into the Arctic from warmer climates south where they stay for decades in the water and air. The source of these chemicals is hard to determine, but is often associated with pesticides and industrial factories.

The pollutants enter the food chain at the bottom, at the plankton and fish. As predators feed on their prey, the POPs work their way up the food chain. Because of a process called bioaccumulation — pollutants entering the body and not being broken down — animals at the top of the food chain have the highest concentration of POPs.

In the 1970s, tests found traces of DDTs and PCBs in Arctic animals. In the early 1980s, scientists found evidence that suggested long-range transport of the chemicals. Now, in addition to the PCBs, DDTs and dioxins, there are traces of flame retardant chemicals, mercury, carbon dioxide and methane in the Arctic ecosystem.

There is a huge concern over the impact this is having on that ecosystem.

"There's scientific evidence that bodily functions of the polar bears are being changed," says Peter Ewins, the director of Arctic conservation with the World Wildlife Fund. "Those impacts are of great concern to people."

According to a draft fact sheet from the Arctic Council, despite a restriction on the chemicals, pollution levels are not dropping in the Arctic. In some cases, they're even still rising.

POPs affect the immune system of birds, fish and mammals, leading to problems in development, reproduction and behaviour. In polar bears, they cause birth defects in cubs, cubs born with dual genders, bears with reduced body weights, less reproductive activity and a decreased survival rate for the entire population.

Ewins says there has been lobbying to get governments to crack down on the release of POPs.

"If it succeeds," he says, "it will significantly reduce and eventually eliminate their use in most countries."