Comments: Ionizing radiation is in uranium mining and milling, we need to keep the uranium mining ban in VA!
Radiation and Sex Odds Nature.com by Paige Brown ”…. a study revealed a cause-and-effect relationship between ionizing radiation and disturbed sex odds, in other words a higher number of male infants born compared to females.This study in Environmental Science & Pollution Research, performed by a group of scientists (Scherb and Voigt) in Germany, gains credibility with data from 40 different countries including the United States, and data from many millions of human births between 1950 and 2007. The sex chromosomes of fathers appear to be at higher risk from mutation due to ionizing radiation, resulting in more male and fewer female children born.
Ionizing radiation consists of energetic particles or waves that have enough energy to disturb atoms in matter, including the atoms that make up the human body.
Ionizing radiation is emitted from radioactive materials, such as those materials that fuel nuclear power plants and that make atomic bombs so deadly.
Scherb and Voigt suggest that, beyond disturbed sex odds, the total number of human births in general is affected by radiation released in to the atmosphere.
They estimate that the number of children not born along with the number of children stillborn or impaired due to the effects of such radiation number in the millions. Sources of atmospheric radiation include atomic bombs, atomic bomb testing such as that in the U.S. prior to a ban in 1963, and nuclear plant accidents like that at Chernobyl in 1986 andFukushima in 2011.
Proximity to nuclear power plants under normal operations may also pose a risk to human reproduction and ratio of male to female births.
Results from the German study reveal changes in sex odds for parents living within distances of 35km from an operating plant.
Although the total number of children not born or born with impairments due to ionizing radiation pales in comparison to naturally occurring pregnancy complications and diseases, this study reveals that we may be underestimating the impact of low-dose ionizing radiation on reproductive health…..
Read more:
http://blogs.nature.com/from_the_lab_bench/2011/06/12/radiation-and-sex-odds
http://antinuclear.net/2012/05/04/we-may-be-underestimating-the-impact-of-low-dose-ionizing-radiation-on-reproductive-health/
