Plummeting sperm counts, shrinking penises: toxic chemicals threaten humanity
By: Erin Brockovich
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The end of humankind? It may be coming sooner than we think, thanks to hormone-disrupting chemicals that are decimating fertility at an alarming rate around the globe. A new book called Countdown, by Shanna Swan, an environmental and reproductive epidemiologist at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, finds that sperm counts have dropped almost 60% since 1973 . Following the trajectory we are on, Swan’s research suggests sperm counts could reach zero by 2045. Zero. Let that sink in. That would mean no babies. No reproduction. No more humans. Forgive me for asking: why isn’t the UN calling an emergency meeting on this right now?
The chemicals to blame for this crisis are found in everything from plastic containers and food wrapping, to waterproof clothes and fragrances in cleaning products, to soaps and shampoos, to electronics and carpeting. Some of them, called PFAS, are known as “forever chemicals”, because they don’t breakdown in the environment or the human body. They just accumulate and accumulate – doing more and more damage, minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day. Now, it seems, humanity is reaching a breaking point.
Swan’s book is staggering in its findings. “In some parts of the world, the average twentysomething woman today is less fertile than her grandmother was at 35,” Swan writes. In addition to that, Swan finds that, on average, a man today will have half of the sperm his grandfather had. “The current state of reproductive affairs can’t continue much longer without threatening human survival,” writes Swan, adding: “It’s a global existential crisis.” That’s not hyperbole. That’s just science.
As if this wasn’t terrifying enough, Swan’s research finds that these chemicals aren’t just dramatically reducing semen quality, they are also shrinking penis size and volume of the testes . This is nothing short of a full-scale emergency for humanity.
Swan’s book echoes previous research , which has found that PFAS harms sperm production, disrupts the male hormone and is correlated to a “reduction of semen quality, testicular volume and penile length”. These chemicals are literally confusing our bodies, making them send mix messages and go haywire.
Given everything we know about these chemicals, why isn’t more being done? Right now, there is a paltry patchwork of inadequate legislation responding to this threat. Laws and regulations vary from country to country, region to region, and, in the United States, state to state. The European Union, for example, has restricted several phthalates in toys and sets limits on phthalates considered “reprotoxic” – meaning they harm the human reproductive capacities – in food production.
In the United States, a scientific study found phthalate exposure “widespread” in infants, and that the chemicals were found in the urine of babies who came into contact with baby shampoos, lotions and powders. Still, aggressive regulation is lacking, not least because of lobbying by chemical industry giants.
In the state of Washington, lawmakers managed to pass the Pollution Prevention for Our Future Act , which “directs state agencies to address classes of chemicals and moves away from a chemical by chemical approach, which has historically resulted in companies switching to equally bad or worse substitutes. The first chemical classes to be addressed in products include phthalates, PFAS, PCBs, alkyphenol ethoxylate and bisphenol compounds, and organohalogen flame retardants.” The state has taken important steps to address the extent of chemical pollution, but by and large, the United States, like many other countries, is fighting a losing battle because of weak, inadequate legislation.
In the United States today, for example, you can’t eat the deer meat caught in in Oscoda, Michigan, as the health department there issued a “do not eat” advisory for deer caught near the former air force base because of staggeringly high PFOS levels in the muscle of one deer.
And, just the other week, hundreds of residents who live near Luke air force base in Arizona were advised not to drink their water, when tests detected high levels of toxic chemicals. Scientists have found these substances in the blood of nearly all the people they tested in the US. No country or region on earth is untouched by PFAS contamination. It is a global problem. PFAS has been found in every corner of the globe. It is virtually present in the bodies of every human. It’s found in fish deep in the sea, and birds flying high in the sky.
And it’s killing us, literally, by harming and attacking the very source of life: our reproductive capacities. The rapid death and decline of sperm must be addressed, and it must be addressed now. There simply is no time to lose.
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Plastics, the gift that keeps on giving.
Act now or our children's children will be impotent with mico-penises.
That's the really bad part here, isn't it? The "next best thing" usually ends up being worse than previous versions.
People wonder why I buy glass bottle Coke or Pepsi when I'm in the mood for it. In the very least, I get aluminum cans, which have a return in MI anyways. I don't like plastics. I understand the purpose in some instances [e.g., cars are much lighter, therefore lowing emissions, etc.]; however, do we REALLY need beverages in plastic? I even prefer getting the glass bottled milk delivered by a local farm. Clear glass can always be completely sanitized... or melted down and reused.
I drink my beer in bottles. For drinks I have one of those thermos cups that I take around.
On the RARE occasions I drink a beer, it's a glass bottle.
I don't know if it will help since we breath dust in the air that's at least partly plastic.
Not like I'm having more kids anyways. That door has been shut for a while now... about 13 years.
Weird I know but I bought a bracelet a couple of days ago from a group called 4ocean.
They started the business by people buying their jewelry and in return, they clean up part of the ocean.
It funds their cleanup efforts, in other words.
Yeah, I've seen those. I've bought a couple as gifts.
Not to worry...
Why does that look like a torture device.
OMG!
yikes
I didn't even look. I saw penile enhancements and backed away
you were thinking little hats or some bedazzling perhaps?
Bedazzling seems more the ticket
I learned something last night. That all wine made after 1945 has certain isotopes in it from nuclear fallout.
Interesting. Along those lines I recently learned that there's a market for the illegal salvage of pre 1945 metal sunken ships because the metal is not radioactive and can be used by the tech industries for instrumentation that requires that sort of thing
Glad I don't drink wine.
It's in everything in very low levels from all those Nuclear Tests. It's the reason Testing was banned in the air, space, or water in 1963 by the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
I read that too, somewhere. Yeah, in just about everything.
Rice has arsenic in it. That's why they tell you to rinse it.
It is a wonder people don't have more health problems than they do.
Wild rice is the easiest rices to digest and contains no arsenic like other types of rice do. It's also the only rice Native to North America and only two other varieties exist worldwide, which are grown in Asia where they're consumed as a vegetable, not a grain.
This must be good news for the climate change crowd.
Sounds like it would be good news for the over population crowd...
Overpopulation is a problem, which also causes climate problems.
That's what I have been saying
It is just common sense.
It's Evolution ! A certain percent of Humans will be immune to these problems and will continue to reproduce while the rest die off with few or no offspring.
Very possible.
More like some people might adapt better to such changes and produce more resilient offspring.
Does penis length really count in fertility?
Ha. Now I am wondering how there would be a correlation there.
Maybe a scare tactic for the dudes...Haha
The more you have sex the more likely pregnancy will occur and larger penis may help in getting repeat partners.
That's a typical man statement. Bigger does not mean better.
That might depend on how small the new small is.
Big or small, it still has to be 'woke' up.
"It's not the size of the nail that counts, it's the size of the hammer your drive it with."
Quite possibly. A larger penis can deposit semen deeper and displace or remove another partner's semen, effectively reducing the competition for paternity.
That's all I needed was a scientific explanation. Thanks, Gordy
Happy to be of service.
Meh ... we're about to have blue-eyed, blond haired CRSPR kids with big ones and can jump.