Originally published August 28 2005
Industrial development may impact sex birth ratios in Canada
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Canadian researchers recently found that male birth ratios are decreasing due to the surrounding industrialization in neighboring areas.
The Aamjiwnaang First Nation community near Sarnia in Ontario, Canada has seen an enormous decline in male births over the last decade.
The community lives on reserve land in the St. Clair River Area of Concern, immediately adjacent to several large petrochemical, polymer, and chemical industrial plants.
The research into the community's gender ratios was led by Constanze A. Mackenzie of the University of Ottawa, and the resulting study will appear in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.
The researchers analyzed live birth records from 1984 to 2003 and discovered that until 1993, the community's sex ratio was within expected parameters.
The sex ratio - the proportions of male and female births within a population - is a key indicator of the reproductive health of a population and of great interest to researchers.
In addition to skewed human statistics, studies of the St. Clair River Area of Concern have found changes in the sex ratios and reproductive ability of fish, bird, and turtle populations.
It is thought that this may be due to exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) from neighboring industrial plants.
The present study did not seek to determine the presence of chemicals such as EDCs and the extent to which those factors may have contributed to the suddenly shifting sex ratios but a 1996 soil assessment of the land found "high concentrations of several contaminants."
"Although there are several potential factors that could be contributing to the observed decrease in sex ratio of the Aamjiwnaang First Nation, the close proximity of this group to a large aggregation of industries and potential exposures to compounds that may influence sex ratios warrants further assessment into the types of chemical exposures for this population," the researchers concluded.
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