[Pharmwaste] Arctic Gender Imbalance

Thu Sep 27 09:55:55 EDT 2007

There have been other studies on the shift in the ratio of male to
female births.  Here is one from April that I posted on the list:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07100/776561-114.stm

I think it would be interesting to see the numbers on birth gender
annually for the states and cities/counties, but have been unable to
find a good source for the data.  Does anyone have sources for it?  

Study seeks to explain drop in male births
Tuesday, April 10, 2007

By David Templeton, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

-----Original Message-----
From: Bennett, Jon L. (ECY) [mailto:jonb461 at ECY.WA.GOV] 
Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2007 6:12 PM
To: DeBiasi,Deborah; pharmwaste at lists.dep.state.fl.us
Cc: Shafer, Phyllis (ECY)
Subject: RE: [Pharmwaste] Arctic Gender Imbalance 

I was mentioning this report to our librarian here at Dept. of Ecology.
She thought that this was pretty interesting.  She often baby-sits at
her church and has apparently noticed that there seems to be a lot more
baby girls than baby boys.   While she has not done any statistical
analyses, she is very observant and I have reason to believe that this
is an accurate occurrence.  Is it possible that what is happening in the
Arctic is also happening here but either no one has noticed or wants to
discuss it?  It would be interesting if someone called a few hospitals
and got some data on recent gender numbers.  

-----Original Message-----
From: pharmwaste-bounces at lists.dep.state.fl.us
[mailto:pharmwaste-bounces at lists.dep.state.fl.us] On Behalf Of
DeBiasi,Deborah
Sent: Monday, September 24, 2007 7:15 AM
To: pharmwaste at lists.dep.state.fl.us
Subject: [Pharmwaste] Arctic Gender Imbalance 

http://www.loe.org/shows/segments.htm?programID=07-P13-00038&segmentID=1

Arctic Gender Imbalance 

CURWOOD: From the Jennifer and Ted Stanley Studios in Somerville,
Massachusetts - this is Living on Earth. I'm Steve Curwood. In certain
villages in northern Greenland something is completely out of whack-only
girls are being born. These reports from villages near the U.S. Air
Force base in Thule are now being explored by scientists.

But studies conducted a few years ago now coming to light show that in
other Arctic regions, the sex ratios of babies are also out of kilter.
In 2004 the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program found a correlation
between exposure to PCBs and shifts in the sex ratios of babies born to
indigenous mothers living in the northern reaches of Russia. PCBs and
other persistent organic chemicals such as pesticides travel from
industrial countries up the food chain into the blubber of marine
mammals.

Lars Otto Reiersen is the executive secretary for the Arctic Monitoring
and Assessment Program. His group conducted the study as part of ongoing
research on pollution, diet and health in the region.

REIERSEN: The most interesting and surprising result was that we saw a
change in the sex ratio that we could correlate to the levels of PCB in
the mother's blood. And we saw that if the mother had more than four
micrograms per liter in her blood the average was to change two girls
per boy in the population that we studied. And that's a quite dramatic
change from a normal situation where there are more boys than girls
born.

CURWOOD: Now when you say more boys than girls born, how many more boys
than girls?

REIERSEN: I think normally-statistically-there is 1.05 or 1.1 boy per
girl. That's the normal average.

CURWOOD: In this population though it's 2.0 girls per boy.

REIERSEN: Yeah, when the mothers have these levels of PCB, yeah. And we
also saw that the birth came earlier and the weight on the newborn
babies that had the highest levels were lower than the normal.

CURWOOD: Tell me about how you went about collecting your data. How did
you find your subjects? Who were these people?

REIERSEN: Based on the study we'd done in Greenland and Canada we are
focusing mainly on the indigenous people living off the marine food
chain because we've seen that these people have the highest levels
because of their lifestyle. And we worked together with the indigenous
people to collect the samples over a year's period to get enough
statistical data. And we have continued after that. The first report was
published in 2004 and the new data just confirmed what we saw earlier.
So what we're looking into now is to try to understand what is the
mechanism behind it.

CURWOOD: Now, looking at your report here I'm just struck by the
apparent effects that PCBs have on the sex ratio of children and the way
it changes. The chart you have there, I'm looking at page 175. The chart
that you have there shows that as you increase exposure to PCBs, at
first you get way more boy babies than girl babies. But then as you go
higher and you get above four micrograms per liter of blood you get way
more girl babies.

REIERSEN: Yes, I can see that. And the scientists do not have any good
explanation of why it looks like you have a stimulation at the lower
levels and then you get the opposite effect when you go beyond that
level. So, what we're doing now is that we're looking into the certain
polar arctic to see-do we see any similar effects in Canada or
Greenland?

CURWOOD: How might PCBs do this do you think?

REIERSEN: Well, it could be what we call the mimic of the hormones. That
early in the pregnancy that some of these pesticides may mimic
testosterone or estrogen. That's documented from science. So, that might
be what's occurring but that's too early to say for sure what's the
mechanism.

CURWOOD: Now, PCBs are concentrated in the arctic and concentrated in
marine mammals. But what might this mean for the rest of us around the
world who have exposure to PCBs but at a much lower level?

REIERSEN: That's a good question. PCB is all over, it's not only in the
Arctic. You have it all over the world in the terrestrial and marine
food chain, and in fresh water. So, from laboratory studies we know that
PCBs may effect reproduction, may have effects on cancer and immune
systems. But I think it's very difficult to document that on the
population level. You have to have very detailed studies like the one we
did in Chukotka area.

CURWOOD: How have the governments of the Arctic responded to your
research?

REIERSEN: Well, they have responded very active. I think you have got
the Stockholm Convention in place to a far extent due to the work we
have done in the Arctic over the years.

CURWOOD: And the Stockholm Convention is?

REIERSEN: That is an international agreement among countries to reduce
the production and use and discharge of persistent organics. I think
that is what you need actions to clean up the use of PCB and the old
waste sites of PCB and others of these chemicals. That's important
actions to be taken.

CURWOOD: Lars Otto Reiersen is the executive secretary for the Arctic
Monitoring and Assessment Program. Thank you so much, sir.

REIERSEN: Thank you.

CURWOOD: For a link to the Arctic pollution study, visit our website:
L-O-E dot org.

http://www.loe.org/images/070921/Health%20Effects%20of%20POPs%20in%20Arc
tic.pdf

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

_______________________________________________
Pharmwaste mailing list
Pharmwaste at lists.dep.state.fl.us
http://lists.dep.state.fl.us/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pharmwaste