New US-Swedish research shows that that the number of pollutants and poverty indicators in certain areas heavily influence the ratio of boys and girls born in those areas, The Hill writes.
The University of Chicago and the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm’s study of roughly half the US population and the entire Swedish population showed that lead pollution increased the proportion of girls mercury while chromium and aluminum pollution resulted in more boys being born.
Possibly because of greater chemical exposure, the proximity to farming also affected the sex ratio as well as things like a high number of fast-food restaurants and vacant buildings, researchers found using electronic medical records
The study’s lead researcher, Andrey Rzhetsky, of the University of Chicago Researchers said future studies should focus on the actual effects of chemicals on human cells as this study only outlines correlations between various factors and sex ratio at birth, but does not show causal links.
Hormonal factors may terminate more embryos of one or another sex during pregnancy although the sex of babies is determined at conception when half of the embryos are male and half are female. Rzhetsky said they now need to determine why that happens since there are many suggested factors – such as stress or something in the environment.
Although research used data from more than 150 million Americans over eight years, and 9 million Swedes over 30 years, the researchers admitted that they were not able to access data on stillborns, and the US data sample may not be representative of its entire population since it lacks data from people with private medical insurance.
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