not being a member of a Bio. or Ecology list, I submit the following for
you enjoyment.
ECOLOGY
||| INDEPENDENT, LONDON - Sperm counts are falling dramatically across
Britain and the rest of industrialised world, and scientists are
increasingly convinced that pollution is to blame. Studies around the
world have shown that average sperm counts in men have dropped by more
than half over the past 50 years ? from about 160 million per millilitre
of semen to 66 million. . .
Other research by the US Government's Environmental Protection Agency
shows that, proportionately, a man now produce only about a third as
much sperm as a hamster. Scientists increasingly blame a whole class of
hormone-disrupting chemicals. Evidence suggests that they cause cancer
and damage the immune system, as well as impairing fertility. And they
are ever more ubiquitous.
DDT and other pesticides disrupt hormones, as do PCBs, used in countless
products worldwide, from plastics and paint to electrical equipment.
Other components of plastics have been found to leach hormone-disrupters
including phthalates, which have been found in a wide range of foods
including baby milk.
Furthermore, an investigation by the BBC's Country File and the
Independent has revealed research, to be published this month, that
shows that artificial oestrogens, used in contraceptive pills and
emitted through sewage works, appear to be changing the sex of half the
fish in Britain's lowland rivers. Scientists and environmentalists fear
that the powerful chemicals are getting into drinking water and
affecting human fertility. One third of Britain's drinking water comes
from rivers; most of it is taken from below sewage works.