Pacific Spirit Marine Institute
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Top Secret! National Security! You DO NOT need to know what you are pissing away!
Do I have a right to know what’s in my urine? How can what I urinate be a matter of National Security? It can’t be!
From fish to meat to baby shampoo to the pipes our water flows through, we are a world increasingly filled with unwanted, unintended chemicals in our bodies and now we are being told we can’t handle the truth.
The truth is, we already know we are being pumped full of pharmaceuticals and chemicals we never signed up for…now the small number of government officials and the other 1% of the public is being made aware.
We already know that 2 of the most powerful antibiotics, ciprofloxacin and enrofloxacin, both banned by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have been getting into the food we eat.
These drugs have been proven to play a major role in the transmission of resistant microorganisms from animals to humans through the food chain.
We also know that Phthalates, a chemical used in many types of plastics, has been linked to testicular cancer and defects of the male reproduction system. Most of the water we drink passes through pipes made of PVC at some point.
In fact 90% of the phthalates produced in the UK go into the production of PVC products. The UK banned the use of products that use Phthalates that come into contact with food stuffs.
A condition known as Testicular Dysgenesis Syndrome (TDS) is the name for the umbrella that covers a long list of male reproductive organ ailments. Cryptorchidism (undescended testicle), Hypospadias (a birth defect of the penis) and impaired sperm production known as spermatogenesis are all being linked to exposure to Phthalates.
Phthalates absorbed by pregnant women is also thought to be leading to the ‘feminization’ of the developing male fetus. The Chemical Bisphenol A, (BPA) is beginning to be linked to ‘gender confusion‘. Virtually everyone tested shows one or more types of Phthalates in their urine.
One of the most in-depth explanations of what and where these chemicals can be found in is in an article ‘down the drain’ that can be found here
Lab rats, babies, fish, mammals of all kinds and now birds have been found to be suffering from the effects of these hormone disrupting chemicals and pharmaceuticals.
Labels: BPA, Bisphenol, Bottled Deep-sea Water, FDA, Feminization, Gender, Hypospadias, PVC, Plastic, TDS, antibotics, chemicals, pharmaceuticals
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Your Urine is now a matter of National Security.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Let’s see if we can wrap our minds around this scenario! It turns out that scientific studies have now proven exposure to BPA, bisphenol A, creates all kinds of reporductive ‘confussion’.
BPA is, but one more toxic chemical that has been absorbed into the envirnment and into humans…for generations. BPA is the substance used to create the slightly stiffer plastic items we use daily to take in much of our food and drink.
First let’s address only a few ways this toxin gets inside of us.
Many of the foods we eat come from cans that are coated on the inside with BPA to prevent the leaching of metal into the foods. We’re jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire. Speaking of heat, studies show that heating items that are made with BPA increases its ‘leaching’ or contamination with the BPA molecules. Millions of baby bottles are made with plastic containing BPA. As any parent knows baby bottles are continually exposed to heat. Many of todays water bottles are also manufactured using BPA. Beer and wine fermentation vats and even sealants used to protect children from cavities. The exposure to BPA is ubiquitous. There is no possilbe way for me to list all the ways this toxin is absorbed by humans.
To put the use of BPA into some perspective, more than 6 billion, that’s billion with a b, are produced yearly. The wide use of this chemical started in the 1950. Simply put, for more than a half century we have been slowly changeing the face of our own genitic make up, now reaching critical mass.
Now let’s look at just one ramification of BPA, which is quite simply amazing. Females reproductive eggs are established, formed and grown while still in the womb. When a woman has been exposed as we all have since the 1950’s to BPA, not only were our grandmothers eggs, ie, our parents who started growing their reproductive systems in utero and then in turn our own, but our children are now representing the 4th generation of BPA ’scrambled eggs’.
To understand this completely I’ve drawn a comparison from BPA in human ‘eggs’ to pearls. As a small particle of sand is at the core of a pearl, these BPA molecules are at the very beginning of the formation of our eggs and sperm. What BPA was absorbed by our grandmothers, was passed then in utero to our parents, this before they were ever exposed to any outside products containting BPA. You can see how the passing on, and the continuous exposoure of this chemical is having a cumulitive effect on all of us.
More than 700 published studies have been decrying the use of BPA. These studies have been summarily dismissed over the years by ‘experts’ in the field of plastics.
Studies have shown in lab rats that low doses of BPA have caused gender confussion. The feminazation of males, and the defeminazation of females, are giving the scientific community great cause for concern. Females when exposed to far lower doses of BPA than the equivilant ‘recomended safe’ exposure to humans caused them to take on masquline traits such as agression, sexual prowess and a lack of maternal nurturing towards their offspring. The females spent far less time in the nest, and took on male traits.
Bisphenol A is only one of far too many toxins we are exposing ourselves and future generations to that are used by us daily. It’s time for us to start turning the tide back to clean wholesome glass containers for our food and drink.
Labels: BPA, Bisphenol, Feminization, Human Reproduction, Plastic, Poison, Toxin
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Gay by Nature or Nurture debate takes a backseat to environmental toxins!
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
