Effects of Dioxin Pollution

TORONTO (Reuters) - More girls than boys are born in some Canadian communities because airborne pollutants called dioxins can alter normal sex ratios, even if the source of the pollution is many kilometers away, researchers say.

Dioxin exposure has been shown elsewhere to lead to both higher cancer rates and the birth of more females.

Researchers at the IntrAmericas Centre for Environment and Health say their findings, released this month, confirm the phenomenon in Canada.

Read the full story here.

As if we don't have enough to worry about! :-( I don't think the fact that more girls than boys being born is all that much to worry about, but the cancer risks associated with dioxin pollution is something everyone should be worried about.

I was born and raised in a town that had an oil refinery. For a long time the refinery caused severe pollution in a small river near where it was built because refinery waste was dumped into the river. Naturally the pollution was not confined to the river alone. The sea area near the river constantly smelled of oil.

I had often wondered what was in the water or in the air in my home town, because at my age I knew too many people who had died of cancer. Close friends and neighbors who had died of cancer. Only a few survived breast cancer.

Now with this piece of news out of Canada, I am beginning to suspect the possibility of dioxin pollution being the main culprit in the high incidence of cancer related deaths. Not only did we breathed the air near the refinery, we frequented the beach and swam in the sea, and ate the fish harvested from the sea there.

The refinery is no longer in existence now. It stopped operating about 10 years ago and the whole structure has been taken down.

The refinery may be gone but there are saw mills in the town or about 25 kilometers away. I guess we cannot be sure if the cancer risks that residents of that town used to face because of the presence of the oil refinery is completely gone.