[jojo gunne]

Chemicals feminizing male wildlife, study warns.

Ugh...like I haven't got enough to worry about!

Chemicals used in common household products that leach into the environment are having a feminizing effect on male wildlife, warns a new study, which suggests potential harm to human males as well.

The report found that chemicals such as pesticides and phthalates block the male hormone androgen, which results in changes to male sex organs.

-un-descended, small or abnormal testicles
-small penises
-ambiguous genitals

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNew...1209?hub=World

Apollo, have you no mercy?

[olePigeon]

You know, they could just choose to NOT be feminized. It's a choice, after all.

[ghporter]

There are tons of chemicals that either block androgens or mimic estrogens that show up in our waste water. Frequently, this is because we're told "just flush those unused pills down the toilet" and wastewater treatment plants CAN'T clean out all the drugs. Another reason is the byproducts of metabolizing our vast array of drugs pass out of our medicated bodies and into the waste stream, and many of these byproducts are also estrogen-like.

[olePigeon]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

There are tons of chemicals that either block androgens or mimic estrogens that show up in our waste water. Frequently, this is because we're told "just flush those unused pills down the toilet" and wastewater treatment plants CAN'T clean out all the drugs. Another reason is the byproducts of metabolizing our vast array of drugs pass out of our medicated bodies and into the waste stream, and many of these byproducts are also estrogen-like.

I know, I was just poking fun at people who claim feminine qualities in men and masculine qualities in women is a choice.

[ghporter]

Oh, I got that. I was adding to what the OP had mentioned. It is a serious problem, and one that our over-medicated, "there's a pill for that" society is making worse every day.

[ShortcutToMoncton]

There was a thread on this some time ago I think.

They've been doing testing about this problem for a few years, in the Experimental Lakes Area in northern Ontario.

What I didn't seen mentioned in that article is the effect of birth control pills, especially downstream of major cities. What women pee down the toilet can be pretty high in feminizing compounds.

greg

[Rev-O]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

There are tons of chemicals that either block androgens or mimic estrogens that show up in our waste water. Frequently, this is because we're told "just flush those unused pills down the toilet" and wastewater treatment plants CAN'T clean out all the drugs. Another reason is the byproducts of metabolizing our vast array of drugs pass out of our medicated bodies and into the waste stream, and many of these byproducts are also estrogen-like.

Waste water treatment plants probably could clean out many of the drugs, but the cost involved would be fairly high. The cost to put into place the process means to accomplish this would be pretty steep and the expenditures would be passed on to the consumer via rate increases to repay the necessary bonding.
Denver Metro Wastewater ran into this issue years ago with the whole mutant fish at their outfalls thing. At that time, the science (not the general estrogen-like drugs issue, but the nuts and bolts underpinnings of how to effectively treat the wastewater in question) was pretty unsettled. With best technology the cost of retrofitting the facilities was staggering (forgot the number, but was told it by one of Metro's muck-a-mucks), and at that there was not much guarantee that it would accomplish the desired end. So they were in the position of passing along a big rate increase to the customer for technology that might work or wait, deal with the public relations side, stick to their discharge permit, and wait for the EPA to come to some conclusion or consensus on the issue.

Originally Posted by ghporter 

Oh, I got that. I was adding to what the OP had mentioned. It is a serious problem, and one that our over-medicated, "there's a pill for that" society is making worse every day.

Agreed. Convincing the public to give up their happy pills is about as likely as convincing the public to pay a bunch more money to adopt technology to remove the by products of their happy pills and keep them from going into the watershed. Just another problem to pass along to another generation.