"Global distillation" is the term given to the process by which a wide variety of toxic chemicals and pollutants are found in much higher concentrations around the north and south poles and on high mountaintops, far from the locations of their actual use or emission.

In exactly the same process used to purify chemicals in lab or make distilled liquor in a still, these chemicals evaporate at their warm site of origin and re-condense in cooler locations.

Global distillation explains why groups of people such as Inuit tribes, Himalaya Sherpa, and Antarctic scientists have some of the highest body burdens of toxic chemicals ever measured.

The effect takes a particularly severe toll on the Inuit, whose problem is compounded by the fact that their diet primarily consists of large arctic animals at the top of the food chain. Some Inuit villages have had only girl babies born in the past few years because high concentrations of estrogen-mimicking chemicals in the bloodstream of the mothers, none of which were produced or released by the Inuit themselves, causes male fetuses to spontaneously change gender in utero.

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