Chemicals Found Everywhere Confuse Sperm, Destroy Male Health

Heather Callaghan
Activist Post

German research shows a direct link between endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) and sperm function which may negatively affect fertilization.

Some people and even researchers think we can simply adapt to more and more chemicals – especially in moderation. But there are thousands of chemicals that we ingest from packaged foods alone. When “fragrance” appears on a shampoo bottle, that word alone can comprise of another thousand chemicals that obviously cannot fit on a label. How far can this go?

Furthermore, all those previously thought to be “safe levels” we eat, drink, handle and breathe every day were completely null and void. Strangely, lower levels can be even more damaging and have been shown to harm the organs of primates.

Some people might not think much of reproductive health because they’ve either decided not to have children or their children are grown. But endocrine health (which affects reproductive health) is vital to your entire life – your energy, your sex life, your moods, your thinking – even your body’s ability to throw off the damages of daily radiation.

A German-Danish team of researchers from the Center of Advanced European Studies and Research in Bonn, Germany, and the University Department of Growth and Reproduction just had their work published in EMBO reports. They find that endocrine disruptors may contribute to widespread fertility problems in the Western world in a way never seen before.

Proving the correlation has been difficult because how do you have a control group in a world already heavily immersed in EDCs for a few generations? Bisphenol-A is just one widely known EDC. Endocrine disruptors show up in food, wheat, food packaging, on money and ATM receipts, in body care products, pesticides, dental procedure residues, cleaning products, plastics, textiles, drugs, toys, cosmetics and more. Furthermore, what EDCs get eliminated through our bodies are recycled back to us through the use of sewage sludge on conventional crop production. Lovely.

The European Commission is currently reviewing its policy on endocrine-disrupting chemicals. Last year, their plans caused a debate between endocrinologists and a group of toxicologists over how to regulate, but they seem to have a more open discussion on the lack of safety information.