Millions Fewer Girls Born Due to Nuclear Radiation?
"Unexpected" findings suggest bomb tests, plant accidents boosted male births.
(Related: Is this the world's most dangerous nuclear plant?)
For the new study, scientists analyzed population data from 1975 to 2007 for 39 European countries and the United States.
They found an increase in the number of male births relative to female births in all of the countries investigated from 1964 to 1975—and in many eastern European countries for several years after 1986.
In "normal" circumstances, male births outnumber female births by a ratio of 105 to 100, study co-author Hagen Scherb said. "It's not known what is the biological reason for this ratio," he added. "It's a natural constant, like the constant of gravity."
The statistical bumps observed in the study are in addition to that slight natural imbalance.
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