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.

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.