Public health response to an identified environmental toxin: managing risks to the James Bay Cree related to cadmium in caribou and moose.

At the request of Cree political and health authorities and using indirect measures of exposure, we estimated the risk to the James Bay Cree of renal impairment related to the long-term consumption of the liver and kidney of moose and caribou contaminated by environmental cadmium. The low risk of disease was weighed against the possible detriment from activities to convince the Crees to avoid a traditional albeit occasional component of their subsistence diet. Our approach to the assessment and management of this specific environmental hazard is of general interest.