UPDATE: There were some questions as to the science that was presented. Research had been released by California Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. The scientists presented their evidence before the “science advisory board’s developmental and reproductive toxicant identification committee,” which composed of eight doctors from various fields of medicine. The doctors heard testimony from almost 30 people, including myself — an environmental advocate — and members of the canned goods industry. -Elisa
OAKLAND, Calif. — Despite day-long presentations of scientific data and heartfelt testimony by breast cancer survivors and concerned mothers, a panel of eight doctors unanimously voted against listing the chemical bisphenol A as a neurological and reproductive toxin under the state’s Proposition 65.
Proposition 65, which was passed by voters in 1986 to protect people from chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects and reproductive harm, requires the governor to publish at least annually a list of these toxic chemicals.
At least a dozen studies have suggested bisphenol A, or BPAs that are found in numerous plastic products, including baby bottles, sippy cups and the inside linings of cans, can cause infertility problems like low sperm count and miscarriage and increase a woman’s risk of breast cancer. But the doctors sided with the industry, saying the animal sample sizes of these studies were too small and that the doses of BPAs were inconsistent to demonstrate a clear link between the chemical and these dire illnesses.
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Tags : infertility, plastic, sperm
Yale researchers may have solved a fundamental medical mystery: how bisphenol A (BPA), a ubiquitous plastics component, changes genetic chemistry and impairs fertility.
The Yale team’s findings, previewed earlier this month to the Endocrine Society, a 14,000-member scientific and medical professional organization devoted to hormone system research and treatment, have intensified scientists’ concern that exposure BPA, a synthetic estrogen that disrupts the endocrine system, may have grave consequences for human reproduction.
In an interview, study co-author Hugh S. Taylor, M.D., professor and chief of the reproductive endocrinology section at Yale University School of Medicine, said his team injected pregnant mice with BPA for just one week. After those mice, and a control group, gave birth, the scientists found that the genetic chemistry of female offspring exposed to BPA in the womb had been irrevocably altered.
A particular gene known as HOXA10, responsible for normal uterine development and fertility in both mice and humans, had been stripped of numerous so-called “methyl groups,” each composed of a single hydrogen atom and three carbon atoms.
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Tags : infertility, plastic, research
Teflon, pesticides, and plastics have all been linked to messing with male fertility. Now, not only are men in danger of extinction, but their ability to reproduce is seriously being compromised. In my artcle Men will become extinct: Appreciate them now, I reported about the fact that males genes will die out in the future. Before their genes die out their ability to reproduce may vanish.
A leading scientist has warned that chemicals found in many foods, cosmetics, and cleaning products are a real threat to male fertility. Professor Richard Sharpe, of the Medical Research Council, says that these hormone-disrupting chemicals are “feminizing” boys in the womb, leading to rising rates of birth defects, testicular cancer, and low sperm counts. ?
Testicular Dysgenesis Syndrome
It is thought that all these conditions, collectively called Testicular Dysgenesis Syndrome (TDS), are linked to disruption of the male sex hormone testosterone. Professor Sharpe concluded that exposure to a cocktail of hormone-disrupting chemicals in the environment is likely to be at least partly to blame by blocking the action of testosterone in the womb. ?
Strange frogs and bears
The strongest evidence showing that exposure to environmental chemicals can lead to disruption of endocrine function comes from the bizarre changes seen in a number of wildlife species, such as male fish transforming into females; frogs developing a variety of defects like multiple testes or ovaries; and hermaphrodite bears, just to name a few.
We’re destroying ourselves
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Tags : infertility, male, plastic
By Steven Reinberg, HealthDay Reporter
THURSDAY, Nov. 13 (HealthDay News) — Bisphenol A, a controversial chemical used to harden plastic packaging for many foods and beverages, may affect human reproduction, researchers report.
Bisphenol A (BPA) could hurt the chances of successful in vitro fertilization, or the ability of embryos to attach to the uterus, according to presentations at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine’s annual meeting, which concluded Wednesday in San Francisco.
“The issue of environmental toxicants upon human reproduction is very important,” said Dr. Richard J. Paulson, chief of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, who was not involved in the studies.
Last month, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel said the agency had erred when it said that BPA, which is widely used in baby bottles and other plastic packaging for foods and beverages, posed no health risks. The agency said it would probably start research early in 2009 to determine the toxic effects of BPA on babies less than 1 month old.
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Tags : infertility, plastic
