Pollutants are making men effeminate

Common Chemicals Are Damaging Genitals And The Ability To Father Offspring, Says Research

 

The male gender is in danger, with incalculable consequences for both humans and wildlife, startling scientific research from around the world reveals. The research — the most comprehensive report yet published — shows that a host of common chemicals is feminising males of every class of vertebrate animals, from fish to mammals, including people.

 

The study has found evidence that pollution is affecting evolution of males by damaging genitals and their ability to father offspring.
Those identified as gender-benders as they interfere with hormones in males include phthalates, used widely in food wrapping, cosmetics and baby powders among other applications; flame retardants in household furniture and electrical goods; and many pesticides.

 

“This research shows that the basic male tool kit is under threat,” the study’s lead author Gwynne Lyons, a former UK government adviser on the health effects of chemicals, who wrote the report was quoted by the Independent as saying.
Researchers have based their study on an analysis of over 250 scientific researches worldwide.

 

The study concentrates mainly on wildlife, identifying effects in species ranging from the polar bears of the Arctic to the island of the South African plains, and from whales in the depths of the oceans to high-flying falcons and eagles.
It also follows hard on the heels of new American research which shows that baby boys born to women exposed to widespread chemicals in pregnancy are born with smaller penises and feminised genitals.

 

Wildlife and people have been exposed to more than 100,000 new chemicals in recent years, and the European Commission has admitted that 99% of them are not adequately regulated. There is not even proper safety information on 85% of them.
The report is published by the charity CHEMTrust and drawing on more than 250 scientific studies from around the world.

 

It concludes: “Males of species from each of the main classes of vertebrate animals (including bony fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals) have been affected by chemicals in the environment. “Feminisation of the males of numerous vertebrate species is now a widespread occurrence. All vertebrates have similar sex hormone receptors, which have been conserved in evolution. Therefore, observations in one species may serve to highlight pollution issues of concern for other vertebrates, including humans.”

 

Even more ominously for humanity, mammals have also been found to be widely affected.

 

Two-thirds of male Sitka black-tailed deer in Alaska have been found to have undescended testes and deformed antler growth, and roughly the same proportion of white-tailed deer in Montana were discovered to have genital abnormalities.

In South Africa, eland have been revealed to have damaged testicles while being contaminated by high levels of gender-bender chemicals, and striped mice from one polluted nature reserved were discovered to be producing no sperm at all. AGENCIES

 

 

 

 

(Source: The Times of India)