Common Chemicals Pose a Threat to Male Fertility

[steven johnson]

There is increasing concern about male fetuses being exposed to a chemical cocktail that are disrupting their masculinization. Chemicals in consumer products and food that have been reported to disrupt the sex hormones include
-- Phthalates in vinyl flooring, plastics, soaps, toothpaste
-- Bisphenol in babies' bottles, food can linings, mobile phones, computers
-- Pesticides

Estrogenic compounds are leading to to ‘feminisation’ of male fish in waters which are contaminated by industrial chemicals and the contraceptive pill. This has reduced fish breeding capacity. It's not exactly a canary in the coal mine, more of a trout in a chemical cocktail. The warning is the same, however.
Study Links Water Pollution with Declining Male Fertility

Professor Richard Sharpe, of the Medical Research Council, warned these hormone-disrupting chemicals were "feminising" boys in the womb.

He linked them to raising rates of birth defects and testicular cancer and falling sperm counts.

There is evidence that male reproductive health is deteriorating, with malformations of the penis becoming more common, rates of testicular cancer rising, and sperm counts falling.

It is thought that all these conditions - collectively called Testicular Dysgenesis Syndrome (TDS) - are linked to disruption of the male sex hormone testosterone.



Chemical cocktail 'risk to boys'
http://

[azul]

1. Is this a good or a bad thing?

Perhaps it is Nature's way of telling us that we are too many to sustain in balance, and too ignorant to figure out a fix on our own? Poisoning ourselves and thinking that that is just part of life?

Maybe bad in that it might be more that we were expecting in terms of our actions affecting future generations?

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Epigenetic Transgenerational Actions of Endocrine Disruptors and Male Fertility

Matthew D. Anway, Andrea S. Cupp,* Mehmet Uzumcu,{dagger} Michael K. Skinner{ddagger}

Transgenerational effects of environmental toxins require either a chromosomal or epigenetic alteration in the germ line. Transient exposure of a gestating female rat during the period of gonadal sex determination to the endocrine disruptors vinclozolin (an antiandrogenic compound) or methoxychlor (an estrogenic compound) induced an adult phenotype in the F1 generation of decreased spermatogenic capacity (cell number and viability) and increased incidence of male infertility. These effects were transferred through the male germ line to nearly all males of all subsequent generations examined (that is, F1 to F4). The effects on reproduction correlate with altered DNA methylation patterns in the germ line. The ability of an environmental factor (for example, endocrine disruptor) to reprogram the germ line and to promote a transgenerational disease state has significant implications for evolutionary biology and disease etiology.

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/308/5727/1466?ijkey=4636402a9b99c3243fbcf4b7fb306f0dcae88015&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha

[KT2000]

2. Wonder how many health care dollars

is spent trying to fix all these problems.
Rachel Carson warned of this the the 1960's and the manufacturers have been stalling the screening of chemicals for endocrine disruption for decades.

[Chemisse]

3. The BPA in baby bottles should be a national crisis

It is amazing to me that infants are still being fed these chemicals in spite of the awareness of what they can/could do.

Here is where the government needs to step in. The mothers who bottlefeed their babies are more likely to be ignorant, not follow or care about health news, and can't understand the implications.

One state and one city has banned BPA products; it's about time the FDA stepped up.