Pacific Spirit Marine Institute
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Guns don’t kill people, people kill people. Plastic doesn’t pollute, people pollute?
It’s no surprise that a member of the American Plastics Council was quoted in 2004 saying the reason plastic is everywhere is because it’s such a good material that does so much so well.
Plastic does do so many things so well. One of the things we are finding out it does so well is cause Testicular Dysgenesis Syndrome (TDS) which has been increasing daily. Plastics that contain Phthalates can migrate into the foods they come into contact with and be ingested and absorbed into our systems.
The chemical BPA, Bisphenol A, which has been used in the manufacturing of some plastics since the 1950’s is now being shown to cause ‘gender confusion’.
BPA has been found to actually pass from generation to generation in utero. This is a topic of conversation best left to other forums, but cosider the fact that there may be less gender confusion in underdeveloped countries where less plastic has been used customarily in every aspect of life for generations.
We have now been exposed to so much plastic that we are urinating the stuff!
Why would anyone be surprised to find there is a bundle of trash, estimated to weigh 3.5 MILLION tons of trash floating in the Pacific Ocean. 80% of this heap, larger than twice the size of Texas, is made up from plastic debris. Debris that is blown washed and flooded out to sea.
Tons of plastic that doesn’t find its way into land fills finds it way to the coastlines and is carried out to see into a giant vortex of currents.
Shame on you, shame on me. Shame on all of us.
We are being told at this point cleaning this mess up isn’t an option. Continuing to live as though there is no tomorrow, and letting the petroleum and plastics industry continue to dictate our futures isn’t an option.
Not anymore.
Labels: BPA, Bisphenol, Ocean, Ocean Habitat, Phthalates, Plastic, Trash, Urine, ecosystems
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
3.5 MILLION tons of trash floating in the Pacific Ocean!
Friday, July 6, 2007
It would be easier to list product that don’t contain any type of phthalates. This Class of toxic chemical is being found in nearly everything that is tested for its presence.
In our environment everything from literally, from below the ground to the air we breathe, up to the clouds held in that air, contain some amount of phthalates.
Building materials, all types of flooring PVC pipes and even household dust contains phthalates. Kitchen utensils and packaging of all types of products that contact both you and your food are found in our environment.
In hospitals, besides the building materials and plastic pipes phthalates are found in blood-bags, medical tubing ans all sorts of medical equipment. This is especially disturbing when considering people in hospitals generally have compromised health situations thereby perhaps making them more susceptible to the dangers of this class of chemical.
Cosmetic products are replete with phthalates. Products such as perfumes, hair spray and nail polish. Women between the ages of 20-40 years were found to have the highest levels of phthalates of any group tested. This is especially disturbing when considering woman in that age group in the main child bearing years. Given the fact that phthalates are endocrine disruptor and estrogen stimulators; no wonder birth defects of males reproductive systems are on the rise.
Also commonly found in foods, phthalates are easily absorbed by fatty foods such as cheese and meat. Restrictions placed on plastics contain phthalates coming in contact with food were meant to reduce the exposure and absorption of these chemicals. But, these chemicals are entering food from a variety of ways, not just from being wrapped in plastics.
Phthalates are being found in food before processing, suggesting they are so prevalent in our environment there may be no way to escape them.
Vast amounts of products containing phthalates plastics such as PVC, toiletries and cosmetics are being literally washed down the drain into sewage and wastewater systems. From wastewater it then goes on to rivers, estuaries and the sea. Ocean habitat, marine mammals and everything in the middle are being affected and poisoned by runoff tainted with these chemicals.
Plastics being incinerated are distributed into the atmosphere where they are then rained down upon the oceans and land. Crops are being irrigated with water that contains phthalates and then is run through pipes that contain them. Crops are then harvested and fed to animals that we then eat that are processed in plants that use equipment that cnatinas phthalates…We are getting the picture!
There isn’t any way for me to put into words the totality of this situation, other than saying “it’s even in our urine”.
How can we protect ourselves from the ubiquitous phthalate? One government website suggests we vacuume regularly. How ridiculous!
Labels: Feminization, Nonylphenolthoxylates, Ocean Habitat, PVC, Phthalates, Plastic, Poison, Sea Mammals, Sewage, TDS, endocrine, estorgen
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Phthalates are Literally Everywhere
Thursday, July 5, 2007
The old joke ‘if you want to feel like a real woman, then wash this shirt and get me a beer’ may actually have more truth to it than we previously thought.
I don’t mean to imply men don’t do laundry. But, the constant contact with household cleaners usually does fall upon the human female. So it’s remarkable to find a connection between a class of toxic chemicals widely used in household detergents and the feminization of male fish.
This development has been studied for about the last 10 years. Nonylphenol ethoxylates, (NPE) known as estrogenic, means contact with this chemical will actually stimulate the production of estrogen.
There’s some irony! Maybe washing shirts really does make me feel more like a woman.
I don’t know if the mature male fish that carry eggs in their testes exhibit female behavior, but eggs in the reproductive system is definitely a female trait.
Canada and Europe have tighter restrictions imposed on the use of NPEs than the US.
In the US the answer to the use of these toxic class chemicals appears to be awarding certificates, maybe bronze plaques to companies that voluntarily commit to the use of safer substitutes for NPEs. How’s that for feminization? Why not a nice scrapbook page for their memory book too?
Voluntarily reducing the use of toxic chemicals is a ‘good thing’ as Martha Stewart would say. Procter & Gamble and Unilever have voluntarily substituted NPE’s with other chemicals in their products. Wal-Mart is still trying to hop on the green-train by rewarding companies it does business with that find alternatives to NPEs.
The Sierra Club thinks it’s time the EPA takes action to restrict or ban the use of this class of chemical.
Feminized or intersex fish have been found nearly everywhere. This leads me to agree with the idea that more than on estrogen stimulating, endocrine blocking chemical is being introduced into the environment and in more than one way.
Meanwhile, male salmon are loosing their urge to swim up stream, and becoming more amiable to staying home with the kids and keeping house.
More tomorrow on Phthalates, Nonylphenol ethoxylates, the Feminization of Marine life and the Human Male.
Labels: Canada, FDA, Feminization, Nonylphenol ethoxylates, Ocean, Ocean Habitat, PVC, Phthalates, Plastic, Poison, Polar Bear, Polar Bears, Salmon, Testicular Dysgenesis Syndrome, USA, Wal-Mart, Whales
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Feminized Intersex Fish, Deformed Male Penis, Hermaphroditic Whales. Linking estorgen stimulating, endocrine blocking chemicals.
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
This article began as being a story about the feminization of some types of male fish. While doing research I came upon some very sobering statistics regarding male testicular cancer and other types of frightening conditions of the male reproductive organs. This type of cancer as well as defects of the male reproduction system are on a disturbing rise and are being increasingly linked to the use of a chemicals called Phthalates.
Phthalates are found in all types of plastics. sometime in the 1950’s these chemicals started being mass-produced and used in the production of plastics. this chemical makes plastic more flexible. Look around your home or office and see just how many things are made from, or contain plastic. Don’t forget about those things unseen like PVC pipes. Most all of the water you come in contact with has moved at some point through some PVC pipe. In fact 90% of the Phthalates produced in the UK go into the production of PVC products.
The danger to the male reproduction system is so high in fact that the European Food Safety Authority placed a temporary ban on the use of Phthalates in the use of products that directly contact food. In 2004 Greenpeace research reveled, in fact, packaging used by UK retailers still contained Phthalates, which can migrate into foods. In 2005 the European Parliament voted to permanently ban the use of these chemicals in children’s toys and childcare articles, belief being that’s the most critically sensitive time in the reproduction system development.
The ban may be too little, too late. A laundry list of conditions now on the rise reads like an alien sci-fi movie script. Cryptorchidism (undescended testicle) hypospadias ( a birth defect of the penis) impaired spermatogenesis (sperm production) and testicular cancers are taking a steep rise.
The blanket term for all these conditions is now known as Testicular Dysgenesis Syndrome (TDS). Keep an eye out for that term in the coming years. I fear we are only just now seeing the tip of the iceberg regarding this terrible trend.
In particular there is also thought to be a very real link between Phthalates absorbed by women while pregnant. This is causing disruption of the prenatal testicular development leading to ‘feminization’ of the developing reproductive tracts in the womb.
Male fish of many variety, both fresh and saltwater, are increasingly being found actually producing eggs in their testis rather than sperm. They are also developing ovary tissue and being found with a reduction of sperm.
As fish are not shopping for their meals at the market, how are they coming in contact with Phthalates?
We will continue this tomorrow.
Labels: Feminization, PVC, Phthalates, Plastic, TDS, Testicular Dysgenesis Syndrome, testical cancer
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Feminized Male Fish, Testicular Dysgenesis Syndrome and Phthalates in Plactics are Linked
