Science has always preceded the expectations of reality. Now, more than ever, there are worries about how all the chemicals the public is exposed to is affecting the general health of Americans, among these substances is a family of chemicals known as phthalates. As a class of widely used compounds they are known technically as dialkyl or alkyl aryl esters of 1,2- benzenedicarboxylic acid. There are many phthalates with many uses and just as many toxicological properties. Generally used as a plastic softener, these compounds are in mainstream items and products, which are part of the fabric of the typical American household. Not to be confused, phthalates are not in the plastic bottles containing water or soda, but they are found in soft and flexible things like shower curtains.
They’re also in shampoos carpeting,perfumes, hairsprays, lubricants and wood finishers. That new car smell that is so famous is actually the aroma of phthalates volatilizing from the hot plastic dashboard of the vehicles interior. In the overnight coolness of the exterior the vaporized molecules condense on the interior of the car and form an oily substance on the inside of the windshield
Phthalates are so ubiquitous, that nearly everyone has traces of this compound in their bodies. Recently the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, placed phthalates on a watch-list of chemicals which “may present a risk” to the environment or human health. The risk associated with the absorbsion of this chemical into the human body is that it disrupts hormone activity and some preliminary studies show that they may be causing a slow and steady demasculinizing of male children.
But if phthalates were put on trial, a jury might find the evidence against them conflicting and inconclusive. And yet last year Congress took action, doing what Europe had already done: it banned certain phthalates in children’s toys. Congress came under pressure to act because of a study by Dr. Shanna Swan, an epidemiologist at the University of Rochester Medical School. Dr. Swan compared the levels of phthalates in a group of pregnant women to the health of the baby boys to whom they gave birth.
Swan told “60 Minutes” correspondent Lesley Stahl that she found that the higher the level of phthalates in the mother’s urine during pregnancy, the greater the genetic problems occurring in young boys and male infants.
Asked what she found in babies, Swan said, “We found that the baby boys were in several subtle ways less completely masculine.”
Dr. Howard Snyder, a pediatric urologist at Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia, says Swan’s findings line up with what he’s seeing in newborn baby boys: an alarming increase in deformed sex organs.
Dr. Snyder operated on a one-year-old identified only as Griffin, to correct something called “hypospadias,” a birth defect that causes problems with urination in male children.
“He’s a healthy little guy who’s, I think, going to get through the rest of life aiming (his urine stream) without any difficulty at all,” Snyder told Stahl.
“We hear that there are more and more and more cases of hypospadias. Are you seeing a lot?” Stahl asked.
“Thirty, 40 years ago, the best data we had then was that hypospadias occurred in about one in every 300 live male births. It’s up to now about one in 100. So there’s been a threefold increase,” Snyder explained.
There’s also been a two-fold increase in another
abnormality: un-descended testicles. Snyder says something seems to be interfering in the womb with the production of testosterone, causing the male organs to form improperly. And he suspects it may be phthalates.
“You’re moving in on these chemicals,” Stahl remarked. “You don’t think whatever we’re seeing is smoking or diet or something else?”
“I think it’s the chemical exposure that is most telling,” Snyder replied.
He points to studies beyond Shanna Swan’s that seem to link phthalates to low sperm counts and low testosterone levels in adult males.
“There’s just too much incremental data that has built up to be ignored. I think it’s a real phenomenon. I really, honestly do,” Snyder said.
Look around Dr. Snyder’s hospital and you see how phthalates can make their way into the human body. They’re in the IV bags and the tubing for instance.
When premature babies – hooked up like this – were studied, researchers found that their phthalate levels soared.
Who would’ve thought chemicals embedded in plastic leach out. Well they do, in small amounts. But studies are beginning to suggest that even small amounts can have an adverse effect. If it is shown definitively that phthalates are dangerous, it won’t be easy to get rid of them.
If the findings of Dr. Swan and Snyder are substantiated by further study, the United States faces a daunting task. About a billion pounds of phthalates are produced annually on a world-wide basis. This level of production has been maintained for several decades. Paralleling the rise of phthalates is the increasing urgency for the general acceptance of homosexual lifestyles and the normalization of the gay ethos. Is there a direct correlation? Maybe. Have corporate profits been placed ahead of the general welfare
of the public? That could well be the case. Recall the tobacco lobby and their cry that “cigarette smoking does not cause cancer.”
If phthalate ingestion/absorbsion is found to be the cause of the feminizing of American men, there will be a calamitous day of reckoning on this issue. The potential for litigation is mind-boggling. The social and political implications are enormous. Meanwhile, the evidence continues to mount which establishes a connection between phthalates and male feminization and that the connection may be incrementally producing a third gender. Further medical
studies are underway which will more rigorously examine the anti-androgen effect of phthalates on the male human fetus.
