Shift in Sex Ratio.

In response to concerns about a shifting sex ratio among members of the Asmjiwnaang First Nation community near Sarnia, Ontario, a team of Canadian researchers examined birth records for the group from the years 1984-2003 as part of a broader community-based investigation. The researchers discovered that, as community members had suspected, there had been a significant and precipitous shift in the sex ratio. The authors acknowledge that there are many other potential factors that could influence the declining sex ratio they describe. But the combination of close proximity to industrial facilities emitting known endocrine-disrupting chemicals and the documented adverse reproductive outcomes in wildlife populations in the region leads them to conclude that further investigations are warranted into the types and routes of chemical exposures for this population.