In the Arctic, Chemicals Disrupt Gender Balance

We already knew that our greenhouse gases were causing problems for the Inuit. Now, we find out that some other little "presents" we've given the Arctic Circle—chemicals from our electronics—are wreaking havoc, too.

In many Inuit communities these days, twice as many girls as boys are born. Scientists recently traced the trend to a buildup of chemicals present in common electronic devices (like televisions and computers). When the chemicals enter the bloodstream of a pregnant woman, they can, scientists believe, act like hormones, causing a fetus to undergo a sex change in the earliest stages of development.

This is not a good thing. In one community in Greenland, only baby girls were born during the course of the study. And if that's not alarming enough, consider the wider implications:

The sex balance of the human race - historically a slight excess of boys over girls - has recently begun to change. A paper published in the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences earlier this year said that in Japan and the US there were 250,000 boys fewer than would have been expected had the sex ratio existing in 1970 remained unchanged. The paper was unable to pin down a cause for the new excess of girls over boys.

This does not bode well for humanity. Not to mention lines for the ladies' room.

Comments

Consider this. The Inuit live far from the sources of mercury and PCBs in the environment. Yet, due to the fact that they eat from the top of the food chain, the breast milk of Inuit women is so high in PCBs and mercury as to be able to be classified as hazardous waste, literally.

What are we doing to this once beautiful planet of ours?!

Posted by: Misanthropic Scott on 09/12/07 at 12:30 PM Respond

It’s bad to have more girls than boys?! If I’m not mistaken, this condition would lead to having less teenage males than females, right? And then, less 20-30 year old wannabe dicks? And then, less 30-50 year old leader dicks? And then, less 50-90 year old dicks complaining about how “they’d do it differently than the young dicks”?

Trust me, the world will be allot better off with less dicks swinging about. One could only HOPE that simple electronic devices would rid the worlds of the dicks.

Posted by: John on 09/12/07 at 12:34 PM Respond

Whoa. Anybody see "Children of Men?" I think I'm going to go live in a cave, you all have fun at the apocalypse.

Posted by: Party Ben on 09/12/07 at 1:37 PM Respond

This is good news for the Chinese. I wondered where we would get our women.

Posted by: Wu Wei on 09/12/07 at 3:08 PM Respond

Poor John, evidently a lost "dick".

Posted by: Pep Solo on 09/12/07 at 3:51 PM Respond

That sound's really far fetched. Is it REALLY a sex change? If a baby is conceived with an X and Y chromosome, a destiny decided by the randomness of the father's sperm, NOT the mother, then it is a male no? So we're talking about male babies somehow becoming females despite their XY nature? Or are the male babied being aborted early in pregnancy as a result of said chemicals? The latter sound's more plausible. Either that or the Guardian needs some basic science quick!!!

Posted by: Bill Peking on 09/12/07 at 4:57 PM Respond

At the other end of our beautiful blue marvel, in the Antarctic, extreme UVB radiation unfiltered by the ozone hole is causing similar problems.

Little wonder NASA keeps doctoring the data!

Posted by: Feww on 09/13/07 at 8:16 AM Respond

Fensu - Doctoring what data? Can you provide some kind of link?

Posted by: Densu on 09/14/07 at 10:09 AM Respond

Densu

Click on my username *FEWW* -bottom of the message- for the link. If it doesn't work copy and paste the following in your browser (works best with Firefox):

http://feww.wordpress.com/

Posted by: FEWW on 09/14/07 at 4:20 PM Respond