title: Ionizing radiation and the human gender proportion at birth--A concise review of the literature and complementary analyses of historical and recent data.
abstract: It has long been known that ionizing radiation causes genetic mutations and that nuclear bomb testing, nuclear accidents, and the regular and incidental emissions of nuclear facilities enhance environmental radioactivity. For this reason, the carcinogenic and genetic impact of ionizing radiation has been an escalating issue for environmental health and human health studies in the past decades. The Windscale fire (1957) and the Chernobyl accident (1986) caused alterations to the human birth sex ratio at national levels across Europe, and childhood cancer and childhood leukemia are consistently elevated near nuclear power plants. These findings are generalized and corroborated by the observation of increased sex ratios near nuclear facilities in Austria, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and The Netherlands. We present a concise review of the pertinent literature and we complement our review by spatiotemporal analyses of historical and most recent data. Evidence of genetic damage by elevated environmental radioactivity is provided.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Computational Biology, Helmholtz Zentrum Muenchen, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Ingolstaedter Landstrasse 1, D-85764 Neuherberg, Germany. Electronic address: scherb@helmholtz-muenchen.de.
authors.forename: Hagen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Scherb
authors.affiliation: Institute of Computational Biology, Helmholtz Zentrum Muenchen, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Ingolstaedter Landstrasse 1, D-85764 Neuherberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Kristina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Voigt
authors.affiliation: Institute of Computational Biology, Helmholtz Zentrum Muenchen, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Ingolstaedter Landstrasse 1, D-85764 Neuherberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Ralf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kusmierz
mesh_terms: D047852:Chernobyl Nuclear Accident; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D036801:Parturition; D011839:Radiation, Ionizing; D018788:Radioactive Hazard Release; D012744:Sex Ratio
keywords: Atomic bomb testing; Chernobyl; Ecological study; Ionizing radiation; Medical X-rays; Nuclear facilities; Radiation induced genetic effects; Radioactive fallout; Time trend and distance trend analyses; Windscale/Sellafield