Pacific Spirit Marine Institute
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
