TOXIC CHEMICALS BLAMED FOR THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ARCTIC BOYS

[Guest guest]

>

> The Independent (London, England), Sept. 12, 2007

> [Printer-friendly version]

> <http://www.precaution.org/lib/07/prn_arctic_boys_disappearing.070912.htm

> <http://www.precaution.org/lib/07/prn_arctic_boys_disappearing.070912.htm>>

>

> *TOXIC CHEMICALS BLAMED FOR THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ARCTIC BOYS*

>

> By Daniel Howden in Nuuk, Greenland

>

> Twice as many girls as boys are being born in remote communities north

> of the Arctic Circle. Across much of the northern hemisphere,

> particularly in the US and Japan, the gender ratio has skewed towards

> girls for the first time.

>

> Now scientists working with Inuit villages in Arctic Russia and

> Greenland have found the first direct evidence that this trend is

> linked to widespread chemical pollutants. Despite the Arctic's

> pristine environment, the area functions as a pollution sink for much

> of the industrialised world. Winds and rivers deliver a toxic tide

> from the northern hemisphere into the polar food chain.

>

> Scientists have traced flame-retardant chemicals used in everything

> from industrial products to furniture, phones and laptops to the food

> chain, finding high levels of these pollutants in seabirds, seals and

> polar bears. The Inuit have traditionally relied on a hunter-

> gatherer's diet almost exclusively made up of marine animals, making

> them especially vulnerable to toxic pollutants.

>

> Historically in large populations, it is considered normal for the

> number of baby boys slightly to outnumber girls

> <http://www.precaution.org/lib/davis_sex_ratio_sentinel.19980601.pdf

> <http://www.precaution.org/lib/davis_sex_ratio_sentinel.19980601.pdf>> in

> a trend believed

> to compensate naturally for greater male mortality rates.

>

> But a peer-reviewed US study

> <http://www.precaution.org/lib/changing_sex_ratio_japan_and_us.070601.pdf

> <http://www.precaution.org/lib/changing_sex_ratio_japan_and_us.070601.pdf>>

>

> found an unexpected drop in the

> proportion of boys born in much of the northern hemisphere. The

> missing boys would number more than 250,000 in the US and Japan, using

> the gender ratio at the levels recorded up until 1970.

>

> The researchers suspected that this linked widespread exposure among

> pregnant women to hormone-mimicking pollutants. But Danish scientists

> examined 480 families in the Russian Arctic and found high levels of

> the hormone-mimicking pollutants in the blood of pregnant women, and

> twice as many girls being born as boys.

>

> They are now studying similar communities in Greenland and Canada and

> although full results will be published next year, their initial

> findings exactly match those in Russia.

>

> Lars Otto Riersen, a marine biologist, pollution expert and an

> executive with the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (Amap),

> says: " When you see such things happening in the Arctic, it may happen

> here first, in the same way as climate change did. "

>

> Although the nature of the Inuit diet is believed to have triggered

> the disturbing ratios in the Arctic, a similar pattern may be emerging

> further south. Until now, the only evidence of the impact of these

> toxins was circumstantial. The most skewed ratio had been in Canada

> <http://www.precaution.org/lib/declining_sex_ratio_sarnia_cn.051001.pdf

> <http://www.precaution.org/lib/declining_sex_ratio_sarnia_cn.051001.pdf>>,

> where a First Nation community in Sarnia lives amid Ontario's

> petrochemical industry, and the number of boys born has plunged since

> the 1990s. The fallout from the toxic cloud in Seveso in Italy in 1976

> allowed scientists to monitor dramatic impacts on both the gender

> ratios <http://www.precaution.org/lib/where_the_boys_arent.020101.pdf

> <http://www.precaution.org/lib/where_the_boys_arent.020101.pdf>>

> and numbers of babies born.

>

> Every year in the industrialised world, household fires cause billions

> of pounds worth of damage, and chemical flame retardants designed to

> curb this are big business. They contain a host of chemicals some of

> which mimic human hormones. These chemicals became notorious in the

> 1960s and a worldwide ban on one category, PCBs, was introduced after

> tests showed they had entered the food chain with potentially lethal

> consequences for humans and animals. But the chemicals industry

> continues to produce variations of the retardants, which scientists

> claim are not subject to the long-range testing required.

>

> Dr Jens Hansen, leader of Amap research, said they were finding

> incredibly high levels of banned PCBs among a cocktail of other

> hormone-mimicking chemicals in pre-natal mothers. Pregnant mothers, he

> said were ingesting these hormone-mimicking chemicals in their diet

> and passing them through the placenta where they influenced the gender

> of the foetus or killed male foetuses.

>

> Aleqa Hammond, Greenland's Foreign Minister, says: " We heard from

> scientists four years ago that our heavy metal consumption is

> dangerous. " She adds wryly: " If you ate me, you would die. "

>

> Aqqaluk Lynge, head of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, said they were

> trying to raise the alarm internationally but nobody was listening.

> " People don't want to talk about such a critical question. We are

> talking about our people's survival which is very alarming. "

>

> Greenland, the world's largest island and still a dependency of

> Denmark, now has the highest proportion of women in the world.

>

> Copyright 2007 Independent News and Media Limited

>

>

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Chinese Traditional Medicine , Domingo Pichardo

<dpichardo3 wrote:

>

>

> >

> > The Independent (London, England), Sept. 12, 2007

> > [Printer-friendly version]

> >

<http://www.precaution.org/lib/07/prn_arctic_boys_disappearing.070912.htm

> >

<http://www.precaution.org/lib/07/prn_arctic_boys_disappearing.070912.htm>>

> >

> > *TOXIC CHEMICALS BLAMED FOR THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ARCTIC BOYS*

> >

 

No doubt exposure to toxins are causing many problems in traditional

populations (and of course modern populations as well)- but I feel a

point that must be taken into account is the change in diet that is

taking place in traditional cultures. The diet of the Inuit is much

more Yin than it has ever been - this will surely cause many shifts in

physiological perameters. Already we see this in these people with the

rising incidence of modern disease patterns that never existed there

before. Sugar, white flour products, refined fats, fiberless foods,

etc. will destroy the health of these people just as it has in the

developed socities. Example - in my home place type 2 diabetes was

rarely seen in traditional culture now it is becoming just as common

as it is in the US - many other such examples could be given.

 

Vinod