gpronger writes "As a follow-up to article on endocrine disruptors by "pickens" is a story in "Science News" on a "National Research Council" report showing potential linkage between the chemical class called phthalates and decreased size of male testes.
The "National Research Council" article reports that the EPA needs to study the impact of phthalates as demasculinizing agents on male reproductive organs. Phtlalates are ubiquitous in the environment due to their use as a plasticizer. Traditionally the EPA has studied the effects of pollutants individually rather than as a class. The impact on exposure is permanent causing developmental problems (and if you want to see what an atrophied rat testicle looks like).
There also growing concern that this class of chemicals are actually impacting the ratio of male to female births (http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1412472/scientists_puzzle_over_declining_male_birth_rate/).
Reported by the Chicago Tribune), is one of the most more extreme case I've come across, the birth rate of males born on the Aamjiwnaang First Nation Reservation in Canada has dropped to 42%. This article discusses endocrine disruptors as a class and not specifically phthalates.
As an analytical chemist working in the environmental industry, one of the challenges with this issue is that the concentrations we are attempting to measure are absurdly (though potentially significant) low. It is not uncommon for the studies to be needing levels of detection in the low parts per trillion range. Because we are not simply dealing with outright mortality (its fairly easy to tell when all the fish in a river are suddenly floating belly-up) and instead trying to understanding fairly subtle changes in the endocrine system of the impacted species (including homo sapiens) the issue is significantly more difficult to understand and address (slow shifts in the ratio of males-to-females)." Link to Original Source
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