Drop in male births raises serious fears

[Guest guest]

" The authors said they cannot say the sudden declining

sex ratio in the community is due to environmental

exposure, but the possibility needs to be studied

because of its location next to large petrochemical,

polymer and chemical plants "

Drop in male births raises serious fears

JOHN MINER, Free Press Health Reporter 2005-08-19

02:22:30

There were calls yesterday for a major probe after

researchers revealed twice as many girls as boys are

being born in a Sarnia native community, raising fears

environmental contamination has disrupted human

reproduction.

" This raises very, very serious concerns for the

area, " said Jim Brophy, a Sarnia doctor and executive

director of the Occupational Health Clinics for

Ontario Workers.

The study, paid for by the University of Western

Ontario, looked at birth records from 1984 to 2003 for

the Chippewas of the Aamjiwnaang First Nation

Community, formerly known as the Chippewas of Sarnia.

The study, reported in the Environmental Health

Perspectives Journal, was launched after members of

the native community raised concerns over a decline in

the number of male births.

The study found the sex ratio was normal from 1984 to

1993. But starting in 1994, the percentage of male

births began to fall sharply and the drop continued

through 2003.

In the five years from 1999 through 2003, only 34.8

per cent of the births were males.

The normal birth ratio in Canada and worldwide is

slightly more males than females -- 51.2 per cent in

Canada.

Studies in wildlife have linked a rise in the

proportion of female births to chemical contamination

that disrupts natural animal hormones.

Scientists have found changes in sex ratios of fish,

birds and turtles in the St. Clair River area, a

region that's home to Sarnia's Chemical Valley

industries and borders the native community.

The study's authors, Constanze MacKenzie of the

University of Ottawa and Ada Lockridge and Margaret

of Sarnia, checked the results from the

Aamjiwnaang First Nation against another Chippewas

community to see if there might be a link to the

native population.

But the other native community had the same birth

ratio as the rest of Canada.

The authors said they cannot say the sudden declining

sex ratio in the community is due to environmental

exposure, but the possibility needs to be studied

because of its location next to large petrochemical,

polymer and chemical plants.

Brophy said there is no reason to believe the problem,

if it is due to environmental exposure, is limited to

the native community.

The researchers were able to study the native births

because the First Nation keeps precise records for

legal reasons, he said. Such records are not available

for the wider, non-native community.

" There is no way of teasing that out at this point. We

don't have a mechanism being able to do it, " he said.

If hormone disruption is the reason for the drop in

male births, there could be other serious health

problems, Brophy said.

Other research has suggested hormone disruption can

cause learning problems and increased risk of breast

cancer, he said.

THE FIRST NATION

The study looked at 1984-2003 birth records from the

Chippewas of the Aamjiwnaang First Nation Community

Location: Southeast of Sarnia on the St. Clair River,

next to the Chemical Valley

Population: More than 600

Land base: 1,315 hectares

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