PCB Exposure Lessens Chance of Fathering Boy

Teenage boys exposed to organic pollutants such as PCBs are less likely to father a male child when they grow up, researchers concluded after studying the aftermath of a major oil spill in Taiwan.

Men exposed to PCBs before age 20 had a 35% lower chance of having a baby boy than individuals matched for age and location who were not exposed to the pollutant, according to the research published in the British medical journal The Lancet.

The researchers from National Cheng Kung University Medical College in Taiwan and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine studied the sex of more than 2,000 children born to people involved in the Yucheng oil accident in 1979 who were exposed to high concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls through their food and cooking oil.