OTTAWA - Canada wants to stop Latin American use of toxic pesticides that drift as far north as the Arctic to contaminate Inuit food. The topic of such drifting chemicals years after their use in Canada has stopped, is on the agenda Tuesday at the first-ever meeting of health and environment ministers of the Americas.

Studies have found that many Inuit people exceed federal limits for daily maximum intake of pesticides such as taxaphene and chlordane, which are believed to drift to the Arctic from other countries. They are just two of a dozen chemicals known as persistent organic pollutants (POPs).

No firm agreements are expected from the meeting, but Environment Minister David Anderson said the topic of persistent pollutants will be raised.

"Canada will certainly talk about DDT, . . . as well as the other 11," he said.

Chemicals can travel great distances through the atmosphere, touching down on oceans and lakes, then re-evaporating to be carried still farther until they wind up in the Arctic.

Because of their reliance on fish and game, Inuit people are particularly vulnerable to such contamination, which is concentrated in the fat of animals higher in the food chain.

Mexico has been promoting alternatives to POPs and its success is being hailed as a model for other Latin American countries.