Nuclear Power = More Boys!!!

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@ix.netcom.com>]

So, if a family wants to increase their chances of having a baby 
girl, I suppose they shouldn't work at a nuclear facility!  I suppose 
that if they want to see if this is statistically valid, they have a 
whole bunch of nuclear workers here in the U.S. as well as in many 
other countrys. Ummmm  .... I have two boys myself!  Guess I should 
have left the industry a long time ago, and maybe I would have added 
a girl to the family ;}
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 LONDON  - Men who work at northeastern England's  
Sellafield nuclear power plant father significantly more boys 
than other men in the region, British researchers reported 
Thursday. 
  Dr. Louise Parker of the Royal Victoria Infirmary in  
Newcastle and colleagues said they found a clear correlation 
between radiation exposure and the birth rate of boys. 
  Writing in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health,  
they said they had studied the files of more than 260,000 
children born in the area between 1950 and 1989. 
  For every 100 girls born to men not employed at Sellafield,  
105 boys were born. But there were 109 boys for every 100 girls 
born to men who did work at the plant. 
  Men who got higher doses of radiation in the three months  
before conception -- careful records of this are kept -- 
fathered 140 boys for every 100 girls. 
  Men who work at Sellafield tended to be young -- 20 to 29 --  
and younger men do father more boys. But other factors did not 
apply and there was no explanation for the excess of boys, 
Parker said. 
  Many groups of researchers have been seeking to explain  
higher rates of cancer such as leukemia among the children of 
nuclear plant workers in some places. 
  There has been no proof that living or working at a nuclear  
plant causes genetic mutations. Some British researchers suggest the
cancer effect has more to do with an influx of migrant workers who may
carry alien viruses to what are usually remote and isolated
communities. 

Sandy Perle
Director, Technical Operations
ICN Dosimetry Division
Office: (800) 548-5100 Ext. 2306 
Fax: (714) 668-3149

E-Mail: sandyfl@ix.netcom.com    

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