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Israeli study: Men exposed to pesticide more likely to have girls
By Dan Even
Tags: Israel news, fertility 

Men who have been exposed to a pesticide known to cause male sterility but have children anyway are more likely to have girls than boys, a recent Israeli study has found.

The research, which was to be presented Monday at a conference in Tel Aviv on the effect of chemicals on reproductive health, examined men who had worked at the Bromine Compounds factory in the Negev in the late 1970s, where they were exposed to dibromochloropropane, a pesticide found to cause male sterility.

The conference is sponsored by the Environment and Health Fund, an Israeli non-governmental association aimed at improving public health, and will take place at Beth Hatefutsoth, the Museum of the Jewish Diaspora.
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"Some of the former workers we examined had a sperm count of zero," said Gad Potashnik, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology and a fertility consultant for the Clalit health maintenance organization, who conducted the study. "They have become completely sterile."

The pesticide, also known as DBCP, had been commonly used for fruit and vegetable crops before it was banned in the United States in 1979 and in Israel shortly after.

The study found that workers who retained or recovered their reproductive ability had significantly more girls than average.

Of 17 babies born to fathers while they were exposed to DBCP through their work at the plant in the late 1970s, 65 percent were girls, as were 59 percent of the 41 babies born to fathers who had been exposed to the pesticide but were no longer being exposed to it by the time of the birth.

The girl-boy split among 51 babies born before their fathers were exposed to DBCP - 47 percent female, 53 percent male - was similar to the international average. Around the world, 49 percent of babies are girls and 51 percent are boys.

The 109 babies in the study were all born to 40 factory workers.

"When you see a population with a clear majority of female children, especially among agricultural or chemical workers, this could indicate the presence of an environmental pollutant and serve as a signal before the catastrophe unfolds," Potashnik said. "I believe sperm cells carrying the male Y chromosome are more sensitive when exposed to chemicals, so they are damaged first."

The researchers found no differences in miscarriage rates, weights of the babies, premature birth, prevalence of birth defects or infant mortality among the three groups.

An article published in May by leading reproductive biologist Professor Richard Sharpe of Britain's Medical Resarch Council suggested that exposure to certain environmental pollutants can make male babies less influenced by the male hormone testosterone and more influenced by the female hormone estrogen.

"Our company has not produced or marketed DBCP for over 30 years," Bromine Compounds said in a statement. "We are not aware of any new studies concerning our employees."
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