You are viewing a single comment's thread from:

RE: Extinction Threat: Jeremy Grantham Letter on Chemical Castration

in #news4 years ago

Something else I wanted to note here is that after reading Grantham's post, I think he may be oversimplifying the fertility issue. There are various factors that contribute to low male fertility like alcohol consumption, other recreational drug use, exercise, BMI, healthy diet, etc. It's not just the two issues he cites: delayed reproduction and chemical toxicity. Considering that we live in an increasingly sedentary and obese world, it's possible that this accounts for the majority of fertility decline. Synthetic endocrine disruptors aren't the only ones in existence either. Soy and other foods for example have high concentrations of phytoestrogens that may disrupt normal endocrine health. The prolific use of soy in foods coincides with the use of pesticides on the timeline in question, at least here in the US. Another coincident variable is prolific recreational drug use, particularly marijuana. If we banned all synthetic chemicals that can cause endocrine disruption tomorrow, we wouldn't suddenly have removed all of the potential variables that interfere with male fertility. There's much more to it than that.

There's also the question of whether the doses of these chemicals that people are typically exposed to would have any effect at all. Any research I've seen in this area is inconclusive and much of the evidence suggests no effect. This is not to say that one shouldn't be cautious when trying to conceive, but I consider it more of a "better safe than sorry" approach than a conclusive "this must be done or fertility will certainly be reduced."

Sort:  
Loading...

Coin Marketplace

STEEM 0.28
TRX 0.13
JST 0.032
BTC 61095.28
ETH 2922.98
USDT 1.00
SBD 3.65