[SANET-MG] where are the boys

[jcummins <jcummins@UWO.CA>]

Chemical agriculture may also  be causing the loss of boys. One main 
concern in Canada is the impact on Jr. Hockey. It is little surprise 
that in this years Olympics the Canadian Women's team was farm superior 
to the Man's.
Pollution: Where have all the baby boys gone?
Every year, thousands of British babies who should be boys are born 
girls. The answer to this mystery could lie in a small town in Canada. 
Geoffrey Lean reports
The Independent
Published: 02 April 2006
Something very strange is happening in a small but highly polluted 
Canadian community. And it may explain why every year thousands of 
British babies who should be boys are born as girls instead.

Young boys are becoming hard to find on the Chippewa Indian reservation 
in the gritty town of Sarnia, in Ontario's "Chemical Valley". It boasts 
four children's softball teams, but three of them are made up entirely 
of girls.

Research shows that the number of boys being born to the community has 
been dropping precipitously for the past 13 years, while the proportion 
of baby girls has risen. Now there are twice as many female births as 
male ones, though nature normally keeps the sexes in balance.

Scientists increasingly believe that pollution is to blame and that what 
has happened here - and among some other highly contaminated groups of 
people in other countries - may solve an enduring mystery of "missing 
boys" in maternity units throughout the industrialised world.

Normally, and with remarkable consistency around the globe, 106 boys are 
born for every 100 girls; the excess is thought to be nature's way of 
compensating for the fact that males were more likely to be killed 
through hunting and conflicts.

But this figure has been slowly declining in rich countries over the 
past quarter of a century. In Britain it has fallen to about 105 since 
1977 -which suggests that every year more than 3,000 babies are born as 
girls instead boys. Studies have revealed much the same story in the US, 
Canada, the Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries.

Suggested explanations have included increasing stress and rising 
numbers of single mothers; women in difficulties, it has been found, 
produce more girls than boys. But what is happening in Sarnia, on the US 
Canadian border, is increasingly turning the spotlight on pollution.

The Chippewa Indians of the Aamjiwnaang First Nation Community have long 
lived in the area, on the southern tip of Lake Huron, not far from 
Detroit. Their right to the land was confirmed in 1827, but much of it 
was taken over by industry in the 1960s.

Now their woods and homes are entirely surrounded by one of the world's 
most extensive petrochemical complexes, producing 40 per cent of 
Canada's entire output of plastics, synthetic rubber and other chemical 
compounds. The air stinks, and the ground is contaminated with high 
levels of dangerous pollutants.

It was those softball teams that first got the 870 people of the 
community thinking that many more girls than boys were being born. Among 
them was Ada Lockridge, a 42-year-old home help aide, who sits on the 
community's council. She and her sister had eight daughters between 
them, and only one son.

She started counting all the babies born to the community since 1984, 
Until 1993 girls and boys were in normal balance, but then the number of 
male births started plummeting. "I felt like I wanted to throw up," she 
says. "I did a lot of crying. And then I got angry."

She joined up with researchers from the University of Ottawa and 
together they published an article in a leading scientific journal. It 
reported "a significant ongoing decrease in the number of male births 
beginning in the early 1990s".

Only 35 per cent of babies now are boys, and there is no sign of the 
decline levelling off. The study could not prove a cause, but pointed 
the finger at "multiple chemical exposures over the years".

Other, non-native communities downwind of the complex also have less 
dramatic reductions in male births, while those upwind do not. And many 
studies have shown sex changes in fish and wildlife in the lake nearby.

Ada Lockridge points to a fire and chemical release at one of the 
chemical plants in 1993 as a possible culprit.

The findings tally with other research around the world. People exposed 
to high levels of dioxin in the 1976 accident in Seveso, Italy, also 
have twice as many girl as boy children. The same is true for Russian 
men exposed to pesticides containing the chemical.

And Brazilian scientists have reported that the proportion of boy babies 
fell in the most polluted parts of the city of São Paulo.

Professor Shanna Swan of the University of Ro chester, New York - not 
far from Sarnia - says that levels of contamination on the reservation 
are "incredible" and that the "first assumption" must be that they are 
to blame. She believes that changing sex ratios may often provide an 
indication of dangerous pollution, and that low levels of exposure to 
such ubiquitous chemicals as dioxins and PCBs may explain the decline in 
boys in industrialised countries.

Additional reporting by Martin Mittelstaedt in Ontario

Something very strange is happening in a small but highly polluted 
Canadian community. And it may explain why every year thousands of 
British babies who should be boys are born as girls instead.

Young boys are becoming hard to find on the Chippewa Indian reservation 
in the gritty town of Sarnia, in Ontario's "Chemical Valley". It boasts 
four children's softball teams, but three of them are made up entirely 
of girls.

Research shows that the number of boys being born to the community has 
been dropping precipitously for the past 13 years, while the proportion 
of baby girls has risen. Now there are twice as many female births as 
male ones, though nature normally keeps the sexes in balance.

Scientists increasingly believe that pollution is to blame and that what 
has happened here - and among some other highly contaminated groups of 
people in other countries - may solve an enduring mystery of "missing 
boys" in maternity units throughout the industrialised world.

Normally, and with remarkable consistency around the globe, 106 boys are 
born for every 100 girls; the excess is thought to be nature's way of 
compensating for the fact that males were more likely to be killed 
through hunting and conflicts.

But this figure has been slowly declining in rich countries over the 
past quarter of a century. In Britain it has fallen to about 105 since 
1977 -which suggests that every year more than 3,000 babies are born as 
girls instead boys. Studies have revealed much the same story in the US, 
Canada, the Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries.

Suggested explanations have included increasing stress and rising 
numbers of single mothers; women in difficulties, it has been found, 
produce more girls than boys. But what is happening in Sarnia, on the US 
Canadian border, is increasingly turning the spotlight on pollution.

The Chippewa Indians of the Aamjiwnaang First Nation Community have long 
lived in the area, on the southern tip of Lake Huron, not far from 
Detroit. Their right to the land was confirmed in 1827, but much of it 
was taken over by industry in the 1960s.

Now their woods and homes are entirely surrounded by one of the world's 
most extensive petrochemical complexes, producing 40 per cent of 
Canada's entire output of plastics, synthetic rubber and other chemical 
compounds. The air stinks, and the ground is contaminated with high 
levels of dangerous pollutants.
It was those softball teams that first got the 870 people of the 
community thinking that many more girls than boys were being born. Among 
them was Ada Lockridge, a 42-year-old home help aide, who sits on the 
community's council. She and her sister had eight daughters between 
them, and only one son.

She started counting all the babies born to the community since 1984, 
Until 1993 girls and boys were in normal balance, but then the number of 
male births started plummeting. "I felt like I wanted to throw up," she 
says. "I did a lot of crying. And then I got angry."

She joined up with researchers from the University of Ottawa and 
together they published an article in a leading scientific journal. It 
reported "a significant ongoing decrease in the number of male births 
beginning in the early 1990s".

Only 35 per cent of babies now are boys, and there is no sign of the 
decline levelling off. The study could not prove a cause, but pointed 
the finger at "multiple chemical exposures over the years".

Other, non-native communities downwind of the complex also have less 
dramatic reductions in male births, while those upwind do not. And many 
studies have shown sex changes in fish and wildlife in the lake nearby.

Ada Lockridge points to a fire and chemical release at one of the 
chemical plants in 1993 as a possible culprit.

The findings tally with other research around the world. People exposed 
to high levels of dioxin in the 1976 accident in Seveso, Italy, also 
have twice as many girl as boy children. The same is true for Russian 
men exposed to pesticides containing the chemical.

And Brazilian scientists have reported that the proportion of boy babies 
fell in the most polluted parts of the city of São Paulo.

Professor Shanna Swan of the University of Ro chester, New York - not 
far from Sarnia - says that levels of contamination on the reservation 
are "incredible" and that the "first assumption" must be that they are 
to blame. She believes that changing sex ratios may often provide an 
indication of dangerous pollution, and that low levels of exposure to 
such ubiquitous chemicals as dioxins and PCBs may explain the decline in 
boys in industrialised countries.

Additional reporting by Martin Mittelstaedt in Ontario

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