ENN: Pollutants Implicated in Births of More Girls Than Boys

A recent study found that residents of Canadian communities who were exposed to emissions from polluting industries such as oil refineries, metal smelters, and pulp mills gave birth to more females than males, a reversal of the normal sex ratio. This is likely due to high levels of common air pollutants called dioxins and is not a surprising finding, according to James Argo, a medical geographer with the IntrAmericas Centre for Environment and Health, who conducted the study. “There is a very strong association [in the scientific literature] between chronic exposure to dioxins and an inverted sex ratio,” he said.

The study is the second phase of a three-part project to examine the links between early exposure to industrial pollution and the development of cancer. In the early 1990s, Argo documented the lifetime residences of 20,000 people who had cancer and 5,000 “control” subjects who did not have the illness. The database was developed to inform research about people’s exposure to industrial pollutants throughout their lifetimes, including prenatal exposure, Argo said.

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