An Ol' Broad's Ramblings
Bring on the Girls!
Air pollution leads to more baby girls
More girls than boys are born in some Canadian communities because airborne pollutants called dioxins can alter normal sex ratios, even if the source of the pollution is many kilometres away, researchers say.
Dioxin exposure has been shown elsewhere to lead to both higher cancer rates and the birth of more females.
Researchers at the IntrAmericas Centre for Environment and Health say their findings, released this month, confirm the phenomenon in Canada.
Normally, 51 per cent of births are boys and 49 per cent are girls. But the ratio was reversed — with as few as 46 males born for every 54 females — in Canadian cities and towns where parents were exposed to pollutants from sources such as oil refineries, paper mills and metal smelters, according to the study.
“If you find an inverted sex ratio, and want to know what causes it, look for sources of dioxin,” said James Argo, a medical geographer who headed the study, which was published in a journal of the American Chemical Society.
“In every one of those cities where those industries are found . . . there was a higher probability of female births to male births,” Argo said.
Perhaps G-d is trying to balance out the population from all those baby girls who have been intentionally killed?
Just a thought.
I’m struggling to find a downside to this. Then, when I remember Miss Canada 2004, I completely lose control and have to comment.
Sorry, stream of consciousness…
But I thought all those pagents were for educational purposes?