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Re: [SANET-MG] Fw: where are the boys- reply O ye of little faith
Hi Dale and Edna,
I am enclosing below an abstract of the publication described in the
article. You can see that the loss of males is indeed significant.The
journal is open access so there is no need to avoid it. The report
mentions that turtles , mammals and birds show decline and aberrant sex
ratio in the area impacted by pollution from the chemical industry.
Turning to an earlier point on XY females, I have found journal reports
of healthy live birth from XY women however some XY women experience a
problem with cancer related to vestigial testicular tissue.
Regarding the line of discussion, it would be healthier for the planet
if we do not cling to old notions and focus on solving the pollution
problem that effects people and our kin the wild animals.
Hope this helps, sincerely, prof. joe cummins
Environ Health Perspect. 2005 October; 113(10): 1295–1298.
Declining Sex Ratio in a First Nation Community
Constanze A. Mackenzie,1 Ada Lockridge,2 and Margaret Keith3
1Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
2Aamjiwnaang Environment Committee, Aamjiwnaang, Ontario, Canada
3Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers Sarnia-Lambton, Pt.
Edward, Ontario, Canada
Address correspondence to C.A. Mackenzie, c/o 171 Kendall St., Point
Edward, ON, Canada, N7V 4G6. Telelephone: (519) 337-4627. Fax: (519)
337-9442. E-mail: cmack046@uottawa.ca
Abstract
Members of the Aamjiwnaang First Nation community near Sarnia, Ontario,
Canada, voiced concerns that there appeared to be fewer male children in
their community in recent years. In response to these concerns, we
assessed the sex ratio (proportion of male births) of the Aamjiwnaang
First Nation over the period 1984–2003 as part of a community-based
participatory research project. The trend in the proportion of male live
births of the Aamjiwnaang First Nation has been declining continuously
from the early 1990s to 2003, from an apparently stable sex ratio prior
to this time. The proportion of male births (m) showed a statistically
significant decline over the most recent 10-year period (1994–2003) (m =
0.412, p = 0.008) with the most pronounced decrease observed during the
most recent 5 years (1999–2003) (m = 0.348, p = 0.006). Numerous factors
have been associated with a decrease in the proportion of male births in
a population, including a number of environmental and occupational
chemical exposures. This community is located within the Great Lakes St.
Clair River Area of Concern and is situated immediately adjacent to
several large petrochemical, polymer, and chemical industrial plants.
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 community 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. A community health survey is currently under way to
gather more information about the health of the Aamjiwnaang community
and to provide additional information about the factors that could be
contributing to the observed decrease in the proportion of male births
in recent years.
Dale Wilson wrote:
Hi Edna and Joe,
Joe wrote:
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.
Edna wrote:
is this phenomenon wide enough spread to be statistically
significant? 35% vs. 51% (106 boys/206 total babies) seems
like a large difference but the number of babies born in a
village of 870 total population can't be a very large sample size.
That is a good point. Every baby born is a roll of the dice so to
speak (determined by which sperm cell fertilizes the egg), and given
the number of small villages across the globe, you could undoubtedly
find a few with excesses of males or females purely by chance. Whether
this is "statistically significant" or not depends on how many villages
they looked at, and how they decided to look at a particular village.
Dale
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