[Pharmwaste] Dioxin pollution leads to more baby girls: study

[DeBiasi,Deborah]

http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=domesticNews&stor
yID=2007-10-18T200543Z_01_N18363845_RTRIDST_0_CANADA-DIOXINS-COL.XML

Dioxin pollution leads to more baby girls: study

Thu Oct 18, 2007 4:05 PM EDT 

By Jonathan Spicer

TORONTO (Reuters) - 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 kilometers 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.

The study also reveals the health risks of living within 25 km (15.5
miles) of sources of pollution -- a greater distance than previously
thought, they said.

Normally, 51 percent of births are boys and 49 percent 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 in
an interview.

Using birth data and an inventory of pollution sources, the study also
concluded that early exposure to dioxins -- even at 25 km away from the
source -- increased the risk of cancer later in life in a group of
20,000 people surveyed during the 1990s.

Previous studies that linked dioxins with cancer and a gender imbalance
focused on smaller distances, usually about 5 km, Argo said.

Dioxins are toxic chemicals found in very small amounts in the air,
water, soil and some foods.

The large-scale burning of municipal and medical waste is the primary
source of dioxins in Canada, but they are also created by fuel and wood
burning, electrical power generation, and in the production of iron and
steel.

Since more females were born in the 90 communities studied, more breast,
uterine, cervical and ovarian cancers were observed among them than
other forms of cancer, Argo said.



Deborah L. DeBiasi
Email:   dldebiasi at deq.virginia.gov
WEB site address:  www.deq.virginia.gov
Virginia Department of Environmental Quality
Office of Water Permit Programs
Industrial Pretreatment/Toxics Management Program
Mail:          P.O. Box 1105, Richmond, VA  23218 (NEW!)
Location:  629 E. Main Street, Richmond, VA  23219
PH:         804-698-4028
FAX:      804-698-4032