Enviro-Toxins Increase Number Of Y Chromosomes

Researchers have found that environmental poisons can significantly change the number of sperms which carry the male XY chromosome. Scientists from the Swedish University Lund http://www.lu.sehave identified a special group of environmental toxins which change the number of the sex determining Y-chromosome – the Y chromosome when matched with an X chromosome determines that the sex of the baby will be male.

Environmental toxins DDE and CB-153 are by-products of industrial and agricultural manufacturing processes. Scientists believe they are possibly the reason why more boys are born than girls. The results of the study were published in the current edition of the Human Reproduction Journal http://humrep.oupjournals.org.

The scientists analyzed the effects of constant exposure to the both environment toxins ingested by eating “fat fish”. The health condition of 149 fishermen was examined. The results prove that those men who showed a high concentration of the toxin DDE had 1.6 per cent more Y-chromosomes in their sperm. A high CB-153-concentration boosted the number of Y-chromosomes by 0.8 per cent. “If only these chemicals show such an effect, other poisons could result in a similar impact for the development of the sex and that could cause enormous consequences”, explained study author Aleksander Giwercman.

Recent research by the Macaulay Land Research Institute http://www.macaulay.ac.ukdetermined that animals’ physical structures were also affected by polluted feed. Scientists found that tests on sheep showed that male lambs behaved “more femalely” because of the contaminated chow.

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