Air and water pollutants are linked to changes in the human sex ratio at birth (SRB)—the ratio between the number of newborn boys to the total number of newborns—according to a study of U.S. and Swedish populations. Researchers at the University of Chicago and Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, found an association between numerous pollutants and changes to the ratio of boys to girls, but did not establish a causal relationship in their study, titled “Observable variations in human sex ratio at birth.” Aluminum in air, chromium, arsenic, carbon monoxide, and total mercury quantity were linked to an increased number of baby boys, while lead is linked to increased births of girls, the authors indicated in their paper published in the journal PLOS Computational Biology on Dec. 2. Authors noted that prior studies had reported conflicting findings for polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), for which they had found it was linked to an increase in the ratio of …
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