Originally published July 8 2005
Chemicals found in plastics and cosmetics can damage boys' reproductive development
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Prof. Shanna Swan of the University of Rochester, New York, claims that there is evidence that some phthalates found in plastics and cosmetics may suppress hormones such as testosterone, and could damage boys' reproductive development at much lower doses than previously thought.
New evidence shows that phthalates - chemicals found in plastics and cosmetics - can damage boys' reproductive development at much lower doses than thought and that hormone exposure in the womb could cause disease later in life, perhaps in future generations.
Among fertility scientists, the human male is the laughing stock of the animal kingdom.
More than a decade ago, Copenhagen University researchers concluded that sperm counts of this already subfertile species were falling in the West.
Principal suspects include "gender- bender" chemicals that act like the human sex hormones oestrogen (female) or testosterone (male), or which block their action in the body.
Compelling evidence has been amassed to show how wildlife can be affected, with exposed fish, birds, frogs, shellfish and other animals sometimes becoming all male, or all female, or something in between.
But it has been much harder to link exposures of men over a lifetime - even before birth - to the decline in sperm count and rise in defects, such as undescended testes, and testicular cancer.
The study, published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, is the first to "support the hypothesis that prenatal phthalate exposure at environmental levels can adversely affect male reproductive development in humans", say the authors.
Exposure causes "a cluster of genital changes" consistent with what is called "phthalate syndrome" in animals.
Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by a team at the University of Texas, the study shows for the first time that exposure of the foetus to a synthetic hormone can permanently "reprogram" tissue in a way that determines whether tumours will develop in adulthood.
His team exposed pregnant rats at the time the sex of their offspring was being determined to vinclozolin, a fungicide commonly used in vineyards, and methoxychlor, a pesticide that replaced DDT.
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