Atomic bomb testing and its effects on global male to female ratios at birth

AIMS: Fallout from atomic bomb testing may travel great distances before precipitating. Males are born in excess of females in a ratio that approximates 0.515 (M/T: male live births divided by total live births. Radiation increases M/T by causing lethal malformations that affect female more than male foetuses, decreasing total births. This study was carried out in order to ascertain whether the effects of increased background radiation levels from atomic weapon testing had any widespread effects on M/T and births in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australasia in relation to the Partial Test Ban Treaty of 1963. METHODS: Annual live births by gender were obtained from a World Health Organization dataset and annual number of atomic bomb tests were also obtained (historical data). RESULTS: Overall, 94.5% of births studied showed a uniform reduction in M/T between the early 1950s to the late 1960s, followed by an increase to the mid-1970s, with a subsequent decline. A negative correlation of M/T with total births was found in 66% of births studied, and these were the regions which exhibited the rising M/T pattern in the 1970s. The birth deficit for countries with significant correlations of total births with M/T (North America, Europe and Asia) was estimated at 10090701. CONCLUSIONS: A rising M/T was found in most regions in temporal association with atomic weapon testing. Most of these regions also had an associated decline in total births. Elevated levels of man-made ambient radiation may have reduced total births, affecting pregnancies carrying female pregnancies more than those carrying male pregnancies, thereby skewing M/T toward a higher male proportion.peer-reviewe

Is the human sex odds at birth distorted in the vicinity of nuclear facilities (NF)? A preliminary geo-spatial-temporal approach.

The trend in the human sex odds at birth in Europe was significantly distorted after the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant accident (ChNPP), and childhood cancers are significantly increased in the vicinity of German nuclear power plants (NPP). Therefore, the question arises whether the human sex odds at birth is also distorted in the vicinity of nuclear reactors and nuclear storage or processing facilities (NF). In this paper we investigate the feasibility of an ecological study based on official gender specific annual birth data of all municipalities of Belgium, Switzerland, and the following parts of Germany: Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, and Rhineland-Palatinate. The analyses involve 316 360 municipality- or district-years, with 22 643 476 live births and an overall sex odds (SO = male live births/female live births) of 1.0546. During the operation time periods of the ascertained 28 NF in Germany and Switzerland, lagging for gestation period, and within 5 km distance from these sites, there is a non-significantly increased sex odds with a sex odds ratio (SOR) vs. the remainder of the study region and non-operational time periods of SOR5km = 1.0056, p = 0.3615. However, within the distances of 15 km, 30 km, and 50 km, we may observe more precisely estimated elevated sex odds ratios: SOR15km = 1.0040, p = 0.0463, SOR30km = 1.0035, p = 0.0026, and SOR50km = 1.0017, p = 0.0567. A significant Rayleigh function (p=0.0023) with mode at 14.4 km, 95%-CI = [10.9 km, 29.3 km], yields a SORpeak = 1.0051. Moreover, there is a reciprocal distance association (1/r) of the sex odds beyond 10 km distance from NF, p = 0.0016. Therefore, evidence of a far-reaching genetic effect in the vicinity of 28 NF in Germany and in Switzerland is achieved. Further studies in this important area of environmental health research are recommended

Injury to health :a forensic audit of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (1972-2005) with special reference to congenital Minamata disease

The objective of this research was to examine whether the United States and Canada have successfully implemented their Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement and to identify the factors determining the continuation of any injury to human health from pollution of the boundary waters. The Agreement was first negotiated in 1972 as part of the legitimation of the social unrest of the 1960s and gave special responsibilities to the International Joint Commission to advise the Parties of problems of water quality. It has been subject to periodic review and occasional renegotiation and amendment. Specifically, the Agreement was renegotiated in 1978 to address the health effects from the imperceptible exposures to persistent toxic substances. Though extensive scientific evidence of continuing injury to health from persistent toxic substances has been available, there has been a consistent pattern of deliberate failure by the authorities to report the injury and to implement many of the remedial provisions contained in the Agreement. The thesis claims that the failure of the International Joint Commission to advise the Parties of the new information about the injury to health and the failure of the Parties to act upon the information when it was obtained from other sources constituted dereliction of duty. While synthesis of the science linking the pollutant-induced injury to specific causal agents was necessary to provide an empirical measure of the failure to implement the Agreement, consideration of the social, economic and political aspects was needed to provide a sufficient explanation for the failure of the International Joint Commission to inform and of the authorities to act. There have been active attempts to use diversionary reframing of the Agreement, based on a multi-causal ecosystem theory proposed by fisheries ecologists, to attenuate the risk message and transform the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement into a more inclusive and less focused agreement on restoring ecosystem integrity. This has been welcomed by industry and governments as a means to remove the focus from addressing the unresolved dangers of persistent toxic substances through costly remedial actions. The International Joint Commission undermined its credibility when it recommended ‘sunsetting’ the use of chlorine in chemical manufacturing. The Parties failed to use a precautionary approach to prevent the commercial introduction of new persistent toxic substances, such as the brominated flame retardants. Since the 1980s, the economic politics of the two nations have been profoundly influenced by neo-liberalism and one of the consequences has been the removal of environmental health as a priority from the respective political agenda. Advisory bodies seem to have been captured not only by the prevailing neo-liberalism but also by corporate interests and these factors seem to underlie the reluctance to report the injury to health from exposures to persistent toxic substances. Though there were many different health endpoints affected by exposures to water pollutants in the Great Lakes, the thesis concentrated on the evidence of neuro-teratogenic effects. The adequacy of the implementation of the Agreement during the past thirty-three years was tested by using Health Canada data on cerebral palsy hospitalisation to evaluate whether there were indications of previously undetected outbreaks of congenital Minamata disease in human populations in Canadian Great Lakes communities potentially exposed to methyl mercury from natural sources or from historic industrial uses of mercury. The uncertainties in the apparent association that was found were reduced by the application of Hill’s guidelines. While these findings indicated both the need for further multi-disciplinary research to locate and diagnose the victims and for a precautionary approach to the consumption of Great Lakes fish, they also indicated that, for more than three decades, health authorities have not diligently implemented the Agreement. The inclusion of the social, economic and political considerations in the forensic audit has revealed the dangers inherent in any renegotiation of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement

Photodiodes

Photodiodes or photodetectors are in one boat with our human race. Efforts of people in related fields are contained in this book. This book would be valuable to those who want to obtain knowledge and inspiration in the related area

The Impact of Air Pollution on Health, Economy, Environment and Agricultural Sources

This book aims to strengthen the knowledge base dealing with Air Pollution. The book consists of 21 chapters dealing with Air Pollution and its effects in the fields of Health, Environment, Economy and Agricultural Sources. It is divided into four sections. The first one deals with effect of air pollution on health and human body organs. The second section includes the Impact of air pollution on plants and agricultural sources and methods of resistance. The third section includes environmental changes, geographic and climatic conditions due to air pollution. The fourth section includes case studies concerning of the impact of air pollution in the economy and development goals, such as, indoor air pollution in México, indoor air pollution and millennium development goals in Bangladesh, epidemiologic and economic impact of natural gas on indoor air pollution in Colombia and economic growth and air pollution in Iran during development programs. In this book the authors explain the definition of air pollution, the most important pollutants and their different sources and effects on humans and various fields of life. The authors offer different solutions to the problems resulting from air pollution