Where the boys disappeared

Something strange is happening in a heavily polluted small community in Canada. The boys are increasingly hard to find on the Chippewa Indian-only land in the town of Sarnia, in the "Chemical Valley" in Ontario.

Here, people are proud of the 4-child children's teams, but 3 of them are girls.

Chippewa Indians (Photo: theplatelady)

The researchers found that the number of boys born in this community has declined dramatically in the past 13 years, while the proportion of girls has increased. Now, the number of girls is twice as many as boys, although it is natural to maintain a balance between the sexes.

Scientists are increasingly convinced that pollution is the culprit of this situation , and what is happening here can relieve the mystery of "missing boys" in maternity departments around the public world. career.

Typically, the average rate of worldwide survival is 106 boys born with 100 girls. This slight disparity is seen as a way of compensating nature for boys who easily die in hunting and conflict. However, this number has decreased slightly in developed countries in the last quarter of a century.

In the UK, this rate has dropped to 105/100 since 1977, meaning that every year more than 3,000 girls are born instead of boys. The situation is similar in countries like the US, Canada, the Netherlands and Northern European countries.

Many explanations were given, including increased stress and the number of single mothers. It is also found that women in difficult circumstances give birth to more girls than boys. However, what happened in Sarnia, on the Canadian-American border, is focusing attention on pollution.

Chippewa Indians have lived in this land for a long time, on the southern tip of Lake Huron, not far from Detroit. Their land rights were confirmed in 1827, but most were taken over by the industries in the 1960s. Now, their homes and forests completely fall within a complex. The world's largest oil, accounting for up to 40% of Canada's production of plastics, synthetic rubber and other chemical products.

The air is stinking, and the ground is heavily contaminated with dangerous chemicals.

It was baseball teams that for the first time made 870 villagers pay attention to girls being born more than boys. Among them is Ada Lockridge, a 42-year-old housewife, village board member. She and her sister all have 8 daughters, and only one son.

Ada started counting all the children born in the village since 1984. Until 1993, the number of boys and girls was balanced, but from then on, the number of "princes" began to decline.

Now, only 35% of children are boys, and there is no sign of changing this ratio.

The study did not prove any cause, but directed interest in "serious pollution over the years". Partly because other communities, not indigenous people, live under the wind of this industrial complex, they have a lower birth rate, and communities are not above the wind.

In addition, many studies also show the gender change of fish and wildlife in a nearby lake.

The finding is also consistent with many other studies around the world. High exposure of dioxin levels in the 1976 accident in Seveso, Italy also has twice the birth rate of girls. And this is also true for Russian men who inhale large amounts of pesticides containing toxic chemicals. A similar situation was discovered in Israel and Taiwan. In addition, Brazilian scientists have reported a decrease in the birth rate of boys in the most polluted areas in the city of Sao Paulo.

T. An