-Caveat Lector-
It's been thoroughly documented by now that estrogen-mimicking chemicals
in the environment (human beings are awash in them) are causing gender role
reversals, loss of interest in sex and/or sterility, and weakening of the
immune system in fish, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals. The "big news" in
today's headlines is that Establishment Science is finally admitting that the
same effects COULD occur in human beings (being mammals TOO) -- but
Establishment Science refuses to extrapolate further, insisting that it dare
not draw any conclusions until after ANOTHER GENERATION of study ...
In many newspapers, that situation is being "spun" to sound as if the
link between certain sexual abnormalities in human beings and environmental
pollution has now been DISproven, or "is NOT PROVEN," at minimum. But that
is NOT the case -- quite the opposite, when you read the fine print -- if the
newspaper hasn't selectively omitted it.
It's just that, frankly, the scientific community is FREAKING OUT at the
implications.
Some Chemical Exposure OK for Humans
By H. JOSEF HEBERT
WASHINGTON (AP) - While adverse health impacts cannot be ruled out, there is
insufficient evidence to suggest that exposure to hormone-disrupting
chemicals will produce additional cancers or infertility, a scientific panel
says.
The panel of the National Academy of Sciences in a report issued Tuesday
emphasized that more research was needed about the possible harmful effects
from exposure to these chemicals known as ``endocrine disrupters.''
The academy's 16-member research panel said that while it was clear that
exposure to the chemicals at high concentrations could adversely affect
wildlife and human health, ``the extent of harm caused ... in concentrations
that are common in the environment is debated.''
Environmentalists and a large number of health experts have argued that there
was growing evidence that a wide range of synthetic chemicals affect estrogen
levels and even at low doses could lead to cancers, neurological problems and
infertility.
As a result, the Environmental Protection Agency has directed a massive
screening of more than 15,000 chemicals to try to determine what is the
greatest risks from human's exposure to these agents in the environment. The
screening and tests, which will be conducted by industry, is expected to take
three or four years.
Some researchers have cautioned that these compounds at low doses over many
years may increase breast cancer, a decline in sperm counts and reproductive
disorders in males.
But the academy's research committee found as yet no clear link between such
exposure and these ailments in humans, according to the 414-page report.
While additional studies were needed, it said the current literature did not
support an association between exposure to low levels of these chemicals and
breast cancer or a variety of other hormonally sensitive cancers.
The panel acknowledged that there was evidence of adverse reproductive and
developmental effects in wildlife and laboratory animals because of exposure
to endocrine-disrupting chemicals. Again, it said no such link could be
determined with current research data in humans at exposure levels found
generally in the environment.
Similarly, the panel agreed there was ample evidence that fetal exposure to
high doses of these chemicals - such as exposure to high amounts of
pesticides in fish or other foods - had been found to hinder nervous system
development in humans as well as birds and animals.
But the study said the data on the effects of these chemicals on human
nervous system development at levels in the environment was insufficient to
make a definitive conclusion.
In all these areas, the panel said additional studies were needed, especially
on children whose mothers were exposed to such chemical agents during
pregnancy.
``Determining the risks to humans from contact with these chemicals in the
environment is difficult because ordinary exposure of these agents has not
been routinely monitored,'' said University of Texas researcher Ernst Knobil,
who was chairman of the panel.
But several scientists, including a member of the panel, interviewed Monday
said the data on which the study was based was now two years old and that
more recent research suggested a closer link between endocrine-disrupting
chemicals and human health.
There is a ``plausibility of human harm'' that cannot be ignored, Frederick
vom Saal, a professor of biological sciences at the University of Missouri,
said in a telephone interview.
Vom Saal, who was a member of the research panel, said the degree to which
there is consensus on the affects of these chemicals at the molecular level
on wildlife and on laboratory animals suggests the likelihood of impact on
humans as well.
Peter deFur, an environmental biologist at the Virginia Commonwealth
University who reviewed the report, said more recent research not covered by
the study implies ``a closer link to human health'' impacts than the study
suggests.
``There is a tremendous amount of research activity going on a number of
these questions,'' he said.
Toxic chemicals could lead to low female sex drive
LONDON (Reuters) - Exposure to toxic chemicals while in the womb could
explain low sex drives in women, New Scientist magazine said Wednesday.
The magazine cited a study by zoologists at Michigan State University which
said female rats that were exposed to PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) in the
womb seemed reluctant to mate as adults.
``This raises the possibility that similar chemical contaminants may cause
low sex drives in women,'' it said.
PCBs are toxic chemicals which may indicate the presence of cancer-causing
dioxins. Belgium's recent dioxin food scare was triggered when tests revealed
the presence of PCBs in animal feeds.
Zoologists Yu-Wen Chung and Lynwood Clemens tested the effects on rats of two
commercial PCBs, Aroclor 1221 and 1254.
They injected 40 pregnant rats with either pure sesame oil or a mixture of
oil and the PCBs at different points during and after pregnancy. They then
studied the behavior of the female offspring.
Chung suspects that during a crucial phase of development, the
estrogen-mimicking A1221 ``defeminizes'' the rat fetuses. She says women's
sex drives could also be affected by PCB exposure in the womb,'' New
Scientist said.
``It's possible. Pregnancy is the critical period,'' Chung told the magazine.
New Scientist said PCBs were once widely used in the production of
pesticides, lubricants and plastics.
Their use was banned in many countries after it became clear that some PCBs
mimic hormones but there is strong evidence that they are still widespread in
the environment, it said.
``Female rats normally adopt a stereotypical posture when copulating, raising
their back and hindquarters to help the male mate,'' Chung told the magazine.
But rats injected with A1221 did not do this as often as rats exposed to
A1254 or those not exposed to either PCB.
A second test paired female and large male rats in a cage with two
compartments. If the females did not feel like mating, they could escape into
the second chamber through a hole too small for the larger males.
Females exposed to A1221 left the males more often and took longer to return
after each copulation attempt by the males.
But Paul Stewart, a psychologist at the State University of New York, told
New Scientist that PCBs in humans were usually at much lower levels than
those used in the tests.
``He also questions whether PCBs were lowering the rats' overall levels of
activity rather than just their sex drive,'' the magazine said.
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