Millions Fewer Girls Born Due to Nuclear Radiation?

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http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/06/110602-millions-fewer-girls-nuclear-radiation-births-science/

"Unexpected" findings suggest bomb tests, plant accidents boosted male births.

Ker Than

for National Geographic News

Published June 2, 2011

Nuclear radiation from bomb tests and power plant accidents causes slightly more boys than girls to be born, a new study suggests. While effects were seen to be regional for incidents on the ground, like Chernobyl, atmospheric blasts were found to affect birth rates on a global scale.

The result: Millions fewer females have been born worldwide than would otherwise be expected, researchers estimate. And given Japan's current nuclear troubles, another boy boomlet could be on the way, experts say.

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The new study is "the most convincing documentation" to date that radiation can lead to sex bias in humans, according to geneticist Karl Sperling of the Institute of Medical Genetics and Human Genetics in Berlin.

The findings challenge the conventional belief that exposure to nuclear radiation has no, or negligible, genetic effects in humans, added Sperling, who wasn't involved in the study, published in the latest issue of the journal Environmental Science and Pollution Research.

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