Chemicals altering gender ratios.

[Ramble]

Looks like the EU is well ahead of us again trying to deal with health related issues. Thought a few of you might find this article interesting.

 

 

http://www.ofncommunity.com/forums/index.p...ew_post&f=2

 

 

 

 

 

It's official: Men really are the weaker sex

 

Evolution is being distorted by pollution, which damages genitals and the ability to father offspring, says new study. Geoffrey Lean reports

 

The male gender is in danger, with incalculable consequences for both humans and wildlife, startling scientific research from around the world reveals.

 

The research – to be detailed tomorrow in 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.

 

Backed by some of the world's leading scientists, who say that it "waves a red flag" for humanity and shows that evolution itself is being disrupted, the report comes out at a particularly sensitive time for ministers. On Wednesday, Britain will lead opposition to proposed new European controls on pesticides, many of which have been found to have "gender-bending" effects.

 

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.

 

"This research shows that the basic male tool kit is under threat," says Gwynne Lyons, a former government adviser on the health effects of chemicals, who wrote the report.

 

Wildlife and people have been exposed to more than 100,000 new chemicals in recent years, and the European Commission has admitted that 99 per cent of them are not adequately regulated. There is not even proper safety information on 85 per cent of them.

 

Many have been identified as "endocrine disrupters" – or gender-benders – because they interfere with hormones. These include phthalates, used in food wrapping, cosmetics and baby powders among other applications; flame retardants in furniture and electrical goods; PCBs, a now banned group of substances still widespread in food and the environment; and many pesticides.

 

The report – published by the charity CHEMTrust and drawing on more than 250 scientific studies from around the world – concentrates mainly on wildlife, identifying effects in species ranging from the polar bears of the Arctic to the eland of the South African plains, and from whales in the depths of the oceans to high-flying falcons and eagles.

 

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."

 

Fish, it says, are particularly affected by pollutants as they are immersed in them when they swim in contaminated water, taking them in not just in their food but through their gills and skin. They were among the first to show widespread gender-bending effects.

 

Half the male fish in British lowland rivers have been found to be developing eggs in their testes; in some stretches all male roaches have been found to be changing sex in this way. Female hormones – largely from the contraceptive pills which pass unaltered through sewage treatment – are partly responsible, while more than three-quarters of sewage works have been found also to be discharging demasculinising man-made chemicals. Feminising effects have now been discovered in a host of freshwater fish species as far away as Japan and Benin, in Africa, and in sea fish in the North Sea, the Mediterranean, Osaka Bay in Japan and Puget Sound on the US west coast.

 

Research at the University of Florida earlier this year found that 40 per cent of the male cane toads – a species so indestructible that it has become a plague in Australia – had become hermaphrodites in a heavily farmed part of the state, with another 20 per cent undergoing lesser feminisation. A similar link between farming and sex changes in northern leopard frogs has been revealed by Canadian research, adding to suspicions that pesticides may be to blame.

 

Male alligators exposed to pesticides in Florida have suffered from lower testosterone and higher oestrogen levels, abnormal testes, smaller penises and reproductive failures. Male snapping turtles have been found with female characteristics in the same state and around the Great Lakes, where wildlife has been found to be contaminated with more than 400 different chemicals. Male herring gulls and peregrine falcons have produced the female protein used to make egg yolks, while bald eagles have had difficulty reproducing in areas highly contaminated with chemicals.

 

Scientists at Cardiff University have found that the brains of male starlings who ate worms contaminated by female hormones at a sewage works in south-west England were subtly changed so that they sang at greater length and with increased virtuosity.

 

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.

 

At the other end of the world, hermaphrodite polar bears – with penises and vaginas – have been discovered and gender-benders have been found to reduce sperm counts and penis lengths in those that remained male. Many of the small, endangered populations of Florida panthers have been found to have abnormal sperm.

 

Other research has revealed otters from polluted areas with smaller testicles and mink exposed to PCBs with shorter penises. Beluga whales in Canada's St Lawrence estuary and killer whales off its north-west coast – two of the wildlife populations most contaminated by PCBs – are reproducing poorly, as are exposed porpoises, seals and dolphins.

 

Scientists warned yesterday that the mass of evidence added up to a grave warning for both wildlife and humans. Professor Charles Tyler, an expert on endocrine disrupters at the University of Exeter, says that the evidence in the report "set off alarm bells". Whole wildlife populations could be at risk, he said, because their gene pool would be reduced, making them less able to withstand disease and putting them at risk from hazards such as global warming.

 

Dr Pete Myers, chief scientist at Environmental Health Sciences, one of the world's foremost authorities on gender-bender chemicals, added: "We have thrown 100, 000 chemicals against a finely balanced hormone system, so it's not surprising that we are seeing some serious results. It is leading to the most rapid pace of evolution in the history of the world.

 

Professor Lou Gillette of Florida University, one of the most respected academics in the field, warned that the report waved "a large red flag" at humanity. He said: "If we are seeing problems in wildlife, we can be concerned that something similar is happening to a proportion of human males"

 

Indeed, new research at the University of Rochester in New York state shows that boys born to mothers with raised levels of phthalates were more likely to have smaller penises and undescended testicles. They also had a shorter distance between their anus and genitalia, a classic sign of feminisation. And a study at Rotterdam's Erasmus University showed that boys whose mothers had been exposed to PCBs grew up wanting to play with dolls and tea sets rather than with traditionally male toys.

 

Communities heavily polluted with gender-benders in Canada, Russia and Italy have given birth to twice as many girls than boys, which may offer a clue to the reason for a mysterious shift in sex ratios worldwide. Normally 106 boys are born for every 100 girls, but the ratio is slipping. It is calculated that 250,000 babies who would have been boys have been born as girls instead in the US and Japan alone.

 

And sperm counts are dropping precipitously. Studies in more than 20 countries have shown that they have dropped from 150 million per millilitre of sperm fluid to 60 million over 50 years. (Hamsters produce nearly three times as much, at 160 million.) Professor Nil Basu of Michigan University says that this adds up to "pretty compelling evidence for effects in humans".

 

But Britain has long sought to water down EU attempts to control gender-bender chemicals and has been leading opposition to a new regulation that would ban pesticides shown to have endocrine-disrupting effects. Almost all the other European countries back it, but ministers – backed by their counterparts from Ireland and Romania – are intent on continuing their resistance at a crucial meeting on Wednesday. They say the regulation would cause a collapse of agriculture in the UK, but environmentalists retort that this is nonsense because the regulation has get-out clauses that could be used by British farmers.

[lew]

a host of common chemicals is feminising males

 

My cousin Leonard got feminsied about 40 years ago and he's now known as Leonora, 'cept I don't think it had anything to do with chemicals

[Rich]

This article really has me upset. I'm gonna grab my high heels, purse and head to the mall to shop it off.

[OhioFisherman]

LOL Lew!

 

Might find a nice pole at the mall Rich?

[holdfast]

Ohh so that's whats going on. I don't see that here yet. But I sure did when I was on Leave, I will just say somewhere in Europe as not to offend anyone. I swear they were Girls. Shes a Man/ Hes a Woman types.

[Fisherman]

Ya, in simpler words, you screw with nature, it bites you in the butt. It's amazing what small amounts of hormone in the watershed will do. Along with another horrible project, the tarsands in Alberta, what goes on in the refining process that the public doesn't see. After reading some of those articles, we'd be better off burning coal.

[Clampet]

Gender is only part of the alteration

[forrest]

This has been known to happen in other parts of the food chain and highly suspected in humans....more than 15 years ago!

 

I remember this on 60 minutes and other sources. The everglades reptiles were exhibiting the sex change mutations.

 

Like many other things society ignores something until major, possibly permanent, damage is done.

 

How much hope is there to fix this if we can't fix other basic problems: smoking, lead in products, toxic plastics. Heck we still mine asbestos!

 

 

forrest

[Guest lundboy]

I already posted a link to a CBC expose/documentary on this issue two weeks ago and you all laughed. This is serious stuff everyone, it's actually much worse than the article starting this thread details.

 

All you have to do to know it's true is look at your friend's, neighbour's, stranger's on the street and relative's kid's, and count how many are girls. Very few have boys.

 

Here's the link to the OFC thread:

 

http://www.ofncommunity.com/forums/index.p...&hl=lundboy

[Fisherman]

All you have to do to know it's true is look at your friend's, neighbour's, stranger's on the street and relative's kid's, and count how many are girls. Very few have boys.

[/url]

MORE GIRLS... more for the boys to play with...but jockularity aside, it is a serious problem, maybe all the guys should make a couple of layaways in the special bank.

[highdrifter]

My cousin Leonard got feminsied about 40 years ago and he's now known as Leonora, 'cept I don't think it had anything to do with chemicals

 

 

Ya remember Mike Duff? Goes by Michelle now though.. Wonder if this one was "chemical" related..!!

[forrest]

I already posted a link to a CBC expose/documentary on this issue two weeks ago and you all laughed. This is serious stuff everyone, it's actually much worse than the article starting this thread details.

 

All you have to do to know it's true is look at your friend's, neighbour's, stranger's on the street and relative's kid's, and count how many are girls. Very few have boys.

 

Here's the link to the OFC thread:

 

http://www.ofncommunity.com/forums/index.p...&hl=lundboy

 

 

It is a problem with cache Lundboy. Fewer words and topics are often better.

There were a few that joked, you just need to get to a few that have a chance to change thing at some point.

 

Having topics of important things every once in a while is good.......here is one for you....is there BPA in plastic milk bags? That is a hormone mimic issue that most of us can ride the current change inertia that has built up on that one item.

Where else is BPA?

 

forrest

[Guest lundboy]

A quick search did not find anything conclusive regarding BPA in milk bags, but there is some indication that this maybe the case.

 

http://www.greenlivingonline.com/HealthNut...ls-in-plastics/

 

Besides it's the thalates and other endocrine disruptors that are used daily by people that are probably even a bigger worry, found in shampoos, soaps, skin care products and makeup as well as the crud in deoderants.

 

Lauryl Sulfates, and parabens are notorious toxins found in the above, even triclosan in toothpaste.

 

a handy reference to influence ones choices:

http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/index.php?nothanks=1

[danbo]

It's Aliens genetically modifying Human DNA to build a better slave! Right GCD??

 

Edited December 9, 2008 by danbo

[danbo]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJYe3PDNl24

[Clampet]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJYe3PDNl24

 

The Bible has an explanation for your "Aliens" ..

http://www.nwcreation.net/nephilim.html

[danbo]

It's meant as a joke..lighten up!

[Guest lundboy]

It's Aliens genetically modifying Human DNA to build a better slave! Right GCD??

 

You're close, except it's not aliens (not a joke).

 

"In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill…. But in designating them as the enemy, we fall into the trap of mistaking symptoms for causes. All these dangers are caused by human intervention and it is only through changed attitudes and behavior that they can be overcome. The real enemy, then, is humanity itself."

-Club of Rome, The First Global Revolution, 1991

 

"...At present the population of the world is increasing at about 58,000 per diem. War, so far, has had no very great effect on this increase, which continued throughout each of the world wars.... War ... has hitherto been disappointing in this respect ... but perhaps bacteriological war may prove more effective. If a Black Death could spread throughout the world once in every generation, survivors could

procreate freely without making the world too full.... The state of affairs might be somewhat unpleasant, but what of it? Really high-minded people are indifferent to happiness, especially other peoples'...."

-Lord Bertrand Russell, The Impact of Science on Society, 1953

 

Here's more of what they think of us:

 

http://www.truthnews.us/?p=565

Edited December 9, 2008 by lundboy

[forrest]

" The real enemy, then, is humanity itself."

-Club of Rome, The First Global Revolution, 1991

 

 

Yep, we are our own worst enemy. People screw others over and we screw ourselves over. Someone needs to control us :, it would be benefitical.

 

-in the mean time teach the kids well.

stop drinking out of chemical filled plastic (that includes lined pop cans) unless of course you are so manly that nothing will effect you.

 

forrest

[Guest lundboy]

The problem is, these people that control us don't apply these same rules to themselves, nor are any of them or their families first in line (or even in the line) for depopulation, and they only breed amongst themselves.

 

None of them are eating the same crap we are being fed, none of them have the inoculations that we are forced to have, and none of them are exposed to the chemical concoctions that are being foisted upon us (unwittingly).

 

The sources of endocrine disruptors are too numerous to avoid, it's not just plastics. The endocrine disruptors are only the tip of the iceberg. Everyday we are being exposed to purposefully deployed chemicals and energies, which have raised the occurrences of cancer, autism, heart attacks, and sterility beyond explanation. Only some of these causes are now coming to light, and out of these, there is no definitive proof.

 

All I can say is, one should be careful what one wishes for... we are about to receive it.

Edited December 9, 2008 by lundboy

[danbo]

Thank goodness for YouTube, eh?

 

http://www.theparacast.com/podcasts/paracast_080831.mp3

Edited December 9, 2008 by danbo

[Guest lundboy]

BPA has been known to be an endocrine disruptor since the 1930s when it was proposed to be and estrogen replacement in menopausal women. It was not suitable because of it's carcinogenic properties. It "coincidentally" made it's way into plastics used to package foods and other food chain preparation even though several times it was evaluated to have negative effects on reproductive systems. It's inclusion in the food chain was not by accident. It is no more accidental than the melamine being found in foods, or the dioxin recently found in Irish meat. And It certainly has nothing to do with aliens, shape shifting reptiles or any space creature one wants to dream up.

 

Further reading:

http://www.breastcancerfund.org/site/pp.as...E&b=3959141

 

A Tale of Two Estrogens: BPA and DES

 

Bisphenol A (BPA) is one of the most universal chemicals in modern life, found in baby bottles, other food and beverage containers, linings of metal food cans, dental sealants and countless other products. It's also found in air, dust, rivers and estuaries — and in Americans of all ages, including newborns. More than 2 billion pounds of BPA are produced in the United States each year; globally, more than 6 billion pounds are produced. Worldwide, BPA generates an estimated $1 million a day in revenue for corporations such as Bayer, Dow, GE Plastics and Sunoco.

 

BPA is a result of the 1930s search for cheap synthetic estrogens, compounds designed to keep post-menopausal women "feminine forever" and to promote the rapid growth of cattle and poultry industry profits. Synthesized in 1936, BPA was shunted aside two years later by a more potent synthetic estrogen: diethylstilbestrol (DES), now known to cause cancer and reproductive abnormalities in both males and females.

 

Though they differ in potency, DES and BPA share striking similarities in their structures, functions and histories. Both chemicals:

 

• Were developed when the health effects of estrogen were poorly understood. Early animal studies linked both chemicals with increased risk of mammary and other cancers and reproductive abnormalities;
  
• Entered the food chain: DES as an intentional additive and BPA through food containers and packaging. DES was prescribed for pregnant women to prevent miscarriage (which it failed to do) and BPA is associated with recurrent miscarriage as seen in a recent study from Japan; and
  
• Were aggressively marketed, despite scientific evidence suggesting the need for caution. BPA is still marketed globally. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ignored the animal evidence of DES reproductive toxicity and approved the drug for medical use in humans in 1941, then for use during pregnancy and for use in livestock and chickens in 1947. When male agricultural workers exposed to DES suffered sterility and breast cancer, FDA banned the use of DES in poultry, but not in cattle or in women. Between 1938 and 1971, an estimated 5 to 10 million women in the U.S. were prescribed DES. Use of DES in cattle continued into the 1980s.
  

In 1970, doctors noted an unprecedented number of rare vaginal cancers in young women whose mothers had taken DES during their pregnancy. Ultimately, DES proved to be a transgenerational carcinogen and a reproductive toxicant, resulting in an FDA alert on the drug. Subsequent research showed an indisputable cause-effect relationship between maternal use of DES and clear cell vaginal carcinoma in daughters. DES also increased the risk of breast cancer in the mothers, and studies now show that increased breast cancer risk extends to DES daughters. Decades of research on DES daughters and sons have shown that animal studies can be useful in predicting effects in people. More information on DES is available from the CDC.

 

Discarded as an estrogen replacement therapy pharmaceutical, BPA was rediscovered by polymer scientists in the late 1940s and quickly became a mainstay of the plastics industry. It is the building block of polycarbonate plastic and is also used in the manufacture of epoxy resins and other plastics, such as polyester and styrene.

 

Although never prescribed as a drug or deliberately added to foods, BPA enters the food chain by leaching from plastic packaging or containers as the plastic ages or is heated. Once in food, BPA moves quickly into people, including placental tissue and umbilical cord blood, where it can disrupt normal prenatal development, even at low levels—parts per billion or parts per trillion.

 

BPA exposure during critical windows of development has been linked with increased risk of breast, prostate and testicular cancer. It's also linked to birth defects, including neurobehavioral disorders, increased risk of miscarriage, decreased sperm production, early puberty in females, obesity and insulin-resistant diabetes.

 

One recent study showed that neonatal exposure to low levels of BPA causes uterine fibroids, cystic ovaries and precancerous lesions in female middle-aged mice. These results closely parallel the effects of comparable DES exposure. In women, such effects are major contributors to infertility and the most common reasons for hysterectomy. For evidence connecting BPA and breast cancer see page 46.

 

Many scientists and the public are increasingly concerned about BPA because of (1) high production volume, (2) widespread human exposure and (3) evidence of reproductive toxicity in laboratory animals. Much of the research indicating health risks of early life exposure to BPA has occurred since 1995 and the accumulated evidence is compelling. However, the chemical is regulated based on research findings prior to 1984. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standard for BPA safety, called a reference dose, is 50 micrograms per kilogram of body weight, per day. Government studies indicate that human exposure may be 10 times that high.

 

Manufacturing Doubt

 

Manufacturers of BPA responded to concern about health risks by criticizing the evidence as controversial, limited and overblown. They called for more research. This all-too-familiar tactic has enabled many industries to continue profiting from tobacco, lead, asbestos, DES and other toxic products while damaging public health. When media reported early studies of BPA's estrogenic effects on the male reproductive system, the chemical industry attacked, saying their scientists could not replicate the studies. Laboratories hired by chemical companies quickly produced studies that found no harmful effects.

 

A 2005 analysis of the BPA literature revealed a clear pattern of bias in reporting results: the funding source often determined the findings. Of 115 studies on health effects of BPA, 94 government-funded studies conducted in academic laboratories in Japan, Europe and the United States found adverse effects at low dose exposure. None of the studies funded by industry reported adverse effects.

 

Leading scientists called for a new assessment of BPA based on mounting evidence of its DES-like effects. The National Toxicology Program (NTP) responded by appointing an advisory committee to assess the evidence and prepare a report. In March 2007, it was revealed that the advisory committee's report had been drafted by a private consulting firm with ties to the chemical industry. NTP fired the firm but accepted the report as unbiased.

 

When the advisory committee reconvened in August 2007 to review the report, leading BPA researchers testified about errors in the report, failure to consider the full range of evidence and reliance on flawed data from industry. The committee remained largely unconvinced, noting in their summary statement "some concern" only for pregnant women, fetuses, infants and children "that exposure to BPA causes neural and behavioral effects."

 

Neural and behavioral effects are a significant concern—particularly for women of childbearing age who are the first environment for babies. Four million babies are born each year in the United States exposed to BPA in their mother's wombs. One in every six children in the U.S. suffers from some type of learning or neurobehavioral disorder, ranging from attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder to autism. This amounts to as many as 640,000 children who are harmed each year—an enormous public health issue and a lifelong problem for children and families.

 

In a parallel process, a collaboration of 38 internationally recognized scientific experts on BPA and other endocrine disruptors published a more exhaustive analysis of the research on BPA, which included a consensus statement plus five peer-reviewed articles. Unlike the NTP committee, the international collaboration concluded: "The wide range of adverse effects of low doses of BPA in laboratory animals exposed both during development and in adulthood is a great cause for concern with regard to the potential for similar adverse effects in humans. Recent trends in human diseases relate to adverse effects observed in experimental animals exposed to low doses of BPA."

 

Among the examples of trends they cited:

 

• Increase in breast and prostate cancer
  
• Uro-genital abnormalities in male babies
  
• Decline in semen quality in men
  
• Early onset of puberty in girls
  
• Metabolic disorders including insulin-resistant (type 2) diabetes
  
• Obesity in children and adults
  
• Neurobehavioral problems such as ADHD
  

The next step for NTP is to compile the data from the two reports, draft its own report and solicit public comment. Meanwhile, California may seek a Proposition 65 listing of BPA as a reproductive toxicant.

 

One other country has taken action on BPA. Norway has advised the World Trade Organization of its intention to prohibit BPA and 17 other substances from consumer goods in that country. This prohibition will include clothing, bags and toys but will not apply to food products or food packaging. While this legislation applies only to Norway, it could become the new de facto standard for companies exporting to Europe since few companies will vary a product for one small market.

 

Regulation of the manufacture and use of BPA in the United States may be years away. Meanwhile, consumers can limit exposure to this chemical through the following measures recommended by the Environmental Working Group:

 

• Minimize the use of plastics, especially plastic wraps and containers, with the recycling label No. 7, which may contain BPA.
  
• Use glass baby bottles and dishes.
  
• Discard old, scratched plastic dishes and containers. Don't wash plastic dishes in the dishwasher using strong detergents, which can speed up wear and tear.
  
• Avoid canned foods and drinks.
  

For references, see State of the Evidence 2008.

 

http://www.thelohasian.com/2008/05/inside-...history-of.html

Edited December 10, 2008 by lundboy

[Rich]

Use glass baby bottles and dishes.

 

If you think that's a viable solution, feel free to come to my house to sweep up the glass shards on a daily basis!

[danbo]

Dang LB.. a link will do..