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92 Comments
- dimmerswitch, on 10/12/2007, -6/+44Does smoking cause a "mail" shortage as well? Is it because the postal workers are likely to smoke?
- bitterg, on 10/12/2007, -3/+22Not many details on this "study," which I find suspicious. ***** science reporting.
- Rice, on 10/12/2007, -0/+18Me too. No, I mean... I'm not glad *you're* a guy, I'm glad *I'm* a guy...
That was awkward. - spudnic, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15Come on you two, just ***** and get it over with
- BrainInAJar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13"the sex of the child is determined at conception"
true, but a majority of pregnancies end in sponatnious abortion anyways, so it could be more likely that the mother's body aborts male foetuses at a higher rate than females if she ( the mother ) smokes, which would shift the birth rate towards females - rollem, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Your sample of one will be added to the study.
- heythisismyname, on 10/12/2007, -5/+13not to mention the sex of the child is determined at conception... the article makes no scientific sense
- BrainInAJar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7"To get real anal about it..."
No, if you do anal... no kids at all, that's the point - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6King Henry VIII most have loveeeed smoking.
- zeptobyte, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6The ignorance of these comments is staggering.
While the sex of a fetus is determined at conception, this article isn't about how many males are conceived versus females. It's about how many are actually born. Perhaps tobacco has an effect on the likelihood of males versus females actually making it to birth. Or it may also have an effect on the chance of male versus female fetuses being conceived.
And just because your parents smoked and had all boys doesn't mean there's anything wrong with this study. Your one case may be an anomaly. - 47knight, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6a/s/l?
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6What a dodgy source. If it says "The Independent reported on..." FIND THE LINK TO THAT SOURCE, which is:
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article2432470.ece - aussieNickuss, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6"The message is clear: if you want an increased chance of a male baby, don't smoke during pregnancy."
Shouldn't any person with any connection at all to health and medicine claim that regardless of whether you want a boy or a girl, you should never smoke during pregnancy. - Carteelith, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5"women who were exposed to secondhand smoke during pregnancy were also less likely to give birth to male infants."
Were they more likely to give birth to male adults? I wish they would have worded this in a more sensible fashion, most of you aren't getting that it's about survival, not choosing the gender. - Noah0504, on 10/12/2007, -7/+12@themastersb: My grandmother and quite a few of my aunts smoke... What about smoking would increase the odds of them being "whores?" Also, what about men who smoke? I smoke, is there anything wrong with me? Not only did you insult smoking women across the world, you made it sexist.
- cmiller1, on 10/12/2007, -6/+11themasterb: your mom doesn't smoke but that doesn't stop her from being one!
- rollem, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4There's an interesting phenomenom in evolutionary biology called the Trivers-Willard effect. It states that parents, specifically females, will tend to have more females than males when they are stressed or otherwise unhealthy and have more males when they are in especially good condition. The logic is as follows:
Males, depending on the specific life history traits of the given species, tend to have more skewed reproductive success. In other words some males have lots of offspring while many males have few or none. Stronger, healthier males are the more successful. Stronger, healhier males tend to come from less stressed mothers. Smoking is unhealthy.
Females, on the other hand, tend to be limited by time between reproductive events and less so by their ability to attract a mate, and so even the healthiest females will not have a lot more reproductive success than the less healthy females. Therefore, healthier mothers can maximize their fitness by having males, and less healthy females will tend to have more females.
This is obviously not true of every species and not a steadfast rule, it's just a trend that has been well supported in many, but not all, species. Finally, I know that sex is determined by the chromosome given by the heterogametic sex (ie human males are XY and given either an X or Y via the sperm) but females are ably to modify the sex ratio by other several other means (such as selective abortions). - igyigyigy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Some people are just plain selfish, and wouldn't stop smoking 'for the good of the baby' but would stop smoking 'so i can have a boy'
- BESTenemy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3If any of you have taken a basic psychology course, you probably are familiar with the "Torches Of Freedom" case in 1928 - when Eddie Bernays (a relative of Sigmund Freud) developed a campaign that would change public preception on smoking women. He hired some women to smoke during a victory parade. Such action was met with attention of the press and public disapproval, that Eddie cleverly turned around by calling cigarettes "Torches of Freedom". Withing a year, big tobacco revenues jumped %32 and kept on climbing throughout many years to come. He opened cigarettes to the whole new untapped demographic.
Closer to World War 2 statistics bureaus all across the globe have started to notice declined in relative boy populations among newborns.
So, it makes me wonder whether expansion of the smoking polulation had an effect on population numbers. Some articles link lack of male chromosomes with chemicals found in fumes of industrial chemical plants. Cigarettes smoke carries a wide variety of ingredients... the conclusions of this study could very well be true. - dreamywallflwr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I have to call *****, my wife and i were both smoking at the time of conception of both of my SONS.
- BrainInAJar, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4again, the sex of the foetus is determined at conception, yes.
The likelyhood that the mother's body doesn't abort the foetus is a different story. That one is highly environmental - KuntaKinte, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3what happens when you have a shmoke and a pancake?
- 47knight, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4I'm so glad I'm a guy.
- rollem, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Your sample size of one is not very convincing. And just so you know, that is not a sample size of four (4 offspring) but of one because the only object on which the treatment (smoking) was applied was to your father.
- rollem, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Although males donate the sex-determining chromosome, the female can selectively implant more females than males, or selectively abort males. This is obviously not conscious.
- MajorApus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Its quite amazing how ignorant most of these comments are. And yes, I read all of them.
The Y chromosome is lighter in weight and therefore can travel just slightly faster. Because of this 52% of CONCEIVED children are male. However, traditionally, if we only count people age 5 and above, the population is very near 50%/50%, there are a couple of reasons for this. One is that females are more likely to survive birth complications, they are more resilient to infant illnesses and so forth.
What I interpret from this study is two things.
1) chemicals in cigarettes *could* effect the males ability to conceive male children at 52% (if its any less than 52% the final population outcome will be less than 50/50.
2) A weak/stressed/unhealthy mother is more likely to miscarriage a male fetus than a female fetus. This is probably because of the same underlying reason that allows females to survive birth better.
And for anyone that said "I smoked, I had a boy", or "My dad smoked, I'm a boy".... Well you obviously don't understand science very well. You are ONE specific case, and statistics can NEVER predict ONE case.
The study used 9000 births. That's a lot more than you and your 2 brothers. And its not saying that you WILL have a girl, its saying its more likely.
And that would be true if it were 49/51 male/female
A few people have mentioned this, just earlier an article was digged about how male population is declining. - gcnaddict, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=3024044&page=1
That one says that it's because of environmental pollutants, and ABC refers to an actual study in the Environmental Health Perspectives journal.
Too bad the name of the journal just screams bias. - 1KrazyKorean, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6Sorry I don't believe it...
- fantasticFlan, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2To get real anal about it, it's determined by the gametes produced by the male, not by the male himself.
- silenteulogy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Junk science in its purest form.
- vampiregabe, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3They are. Where do you think "Metro-sexual" and "cheese-eating surrender monkey" came from?
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Why is it that British scientists are always the ones to come up with the most ridiculous ***** like this?
This is SO dumb... - bdpf, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14 boys,,, 1 girl...
- hackajar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Total BS. My kid is a boy, and I've smoked since I was 14. Further, my kids mom smokes, further she has two other boys and both of those kids were by chain smoking dads.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"And for anyone that said "I smoked, I had a boy", or "My dad smoked, I'm a boy".... Well you obviously don't understand science very well. You are ONE specific case, and statistics can NEVER predict ONE case."
It's not ONE case that's been posted here. It's a *****. And people on here aren't just saying 'my dad smoked im a boy lol' they're saying ***** like 'BOTH of my parents smoked and i'm a boy and have 2 brothers and no sisters'. There's a big difference.
you're just some ***** hard-headed science fanboy that is afraid to admit that sometimes scientists can be ***** wrong. don't believe everything you hear just because it was said by a dude in white lab coat (and bad teeth, in this case) - iStunT, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1this would be pretty interesting if it were true, which I'm not too sure about. There has been a shortage of male births recently according to another article i just read here on digg. Maybe this is true but has only little affect of whether its a boy or girl. Still Dugg though.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1no, you know what, i dont even think this is a matter of anyone being wrong. this ***** was probably just ***** made up to try to scare some people to stop smoking. i'm just suprised this wasn't done in america first
- zeptobyte, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It's saying that 52% are ordinarily male, but among smokers, the number is much lower.
- ropers, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Wait, wait! Didn't we just read about China facing a male surplus in the years to come? Well, you know what to do. Start smoking. Hey, it may be dangerous, but the nation needs your sacrifice. Do it for the People's Republic!
- Crimsoneer, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Erm, no.
"Researchers reportedly found that substances contained in cigarettes, such as nicotine, inhibit sperm carrying male chromosomes from fertilizing eggs. " - BoydRE, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4Are you human? You next child is likely to be a girl. Girls are always more likely to be born.
- NiX0n, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I'd like to know how a smoking mother affects the gender of the child? This considering how a woman only carries X chromosomes, and not even smoking can change that.
- sekaijin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0true or not...that would be the best anti-smoking advertisement i can imagine.
- bobcrotch, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1The difference doesn't matter, how can you draw scientific conclusions from a non scientific method? This wasn't a controlled experiment it's just statistics. There could have been many other factors in the case and they don't even have any data to back up their claim that smoking creates female offspring.
- BaltimoreTom, on 05/06/2009, -2/+2that's funny because i smoked for 15 years until 18 months ago and i have three boys.
- bobcrotch, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1You bring up great points but smoking isn't the only or main factor of making a mother weak, stressed or general unhealthy.
People shouldn't smoke because it is unhealthy but I would hate to see something like this turn out like global warming with little fact behind it causing huge waves. - Digi2112, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1WTF-ever
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