Just what does the environment do to our reproductive system?
Like Marie at Green Fertility always talks about, there is a war going on out there against our (yes, OUR..everyone’s) reproductive systems. Whether by drugs, the environment, hormones in our foods or whatever, things are taking a toll on our ability as humans to procreate. From an article over at AlterNet:
In California, female sea lions are spontaneously aborting their fetuses.
In the Great Lakes area, mother gulls are sharing nests and raising eggs together because their male partners have forgotten how to parent.
In upstate New York, female frogs have as much testosterone in their bodies as males.
Scientists say these aberrations all share a common link: exposure to toxic chemicals called “endocrine disruptors,” which pollute the air, soil and water.
Um, yikes? Um, no thanks? Need more proof:
Common endocrine disruptors include pesticides, phthalates (which make plastic flexible and make cosmetics adhere to the skin) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs, industrial cooling agents banned in the United States in 1979 but still present in the environment.) Individual chemicals such as these — or groups of them working together — are making animals’ hormones go haywire.
In Washington state, endocrine disruptors have been tied to the deaths of mother orcas, whose orphans have been adopted by other female whales. Some waterfowl and fish are experiencing ‘feminization’ from chemicals.
In Alaska, they have caused female polar bears’ ovaries to shrink.
In Massachusetts, they have lowered the over-winter survival rates of female tree swallows.
In Florida, they have accumulated in the milk of mother dolphins, poisoning and killing their calves.
Ok, now obviously the environment is having an effect on the animals on this planet. But those are animals you say, not humans. Well, how about:
The Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which tests the “body burden” of chemicals every two years, finds the average American now has 116 synthetic compounds in her body, including dioxin (produced by burning plastic), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (found in auto exhaust) and organochlorine pesticides (found in farming areas).
Egads! Somebody please make it stop. Marie, can you make it stop? You are much better at explaining this stuff than I am…please?
Oh, and as for my note above about how it is affecting everyone, not just moms and their kids?
Other health problems that researchers say may be linked to environmental toxins include male infertility, which has increased twelvefold in the past 80 years; prostate cancer, up 75 percent in 30 years….
This is just not acceptable. Our government needs to stop allowing all this pollution into the air and into our food, water, clothes, computers, etc. But they won’t until we start complaining. So be sure to always voice your opinion if you see a way to let them know you are on to them, and their drive to see us all have 3 headed, 1 legged children.
Original article source: AlterNet
technorati tags: environment pollution reproductive problems
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