http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/science/10/02/offbeat.who.blond.reut/index.html
WHO knows the fate of blonds?
Wednesday, October 2, 2002 Posted: 1:09 PM EDT (1709 GMT)
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UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -- In the end, it seems it was just another dumb blond joke.
The World Health Organization (WHO), the Geneva-based health arm of the United Nations, insisted on Tuesday that despite the many media reports to the contrary, it had never conducted a study predicting the extinction of the natural blond hair gene.
This despite stories around the world citing WHO research stating that natural blonds would become extinct by 2202.
Reports to that effect had appeared in recent days on CNN and ABC News and in London's Daily Mail newspaper, among others. But WHO said it has never conducted research on the topic.
WHO "has no knowledge of how these news reports originated but would like to stress that we have no opinion on the future existence of blonds," it said in a statement released at United Nations headquarters in New York.
According to the published reports, the supposed WHO study had predicted that the last blond on earth would be in Finland, which today has the world's highest concentration of true blonds.
The reports said blond hair was caused by a recessive gene, so both sides of the family have to have it to extend the shade into the next generation. But too few people carry the gene to assure its long-term survival.