Abstract
The Arctic Council held its meeting in Inari (Finland) in October 2002. The second report of the Artic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) was presented there, including a substantial section focusing on to human health. AMAP is one of the first international monitoring programmes to design and implement a monitoring programme covering all major ecological systems and all major contaminant groups. A conclusion of the results of the programme is presented as an invited review in this issue.