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Also affecting fertility rates at the moment: low counts > The analysis found an overall 52.4 percent decline in sperm concentration and a 59.3 percent decline

Also affecting fertility rates at the moment: low counts > The analysis found an overall 52.4 percent decline in sperm concentration and a 59.3 percent decline in the total sperm count over the 39-year period. https://www.npr.org/2017/07/31/539517210/sperm-counts-plummet-in-western-men-study-finds https://www.npr.org/2017/07/31/539517210/sperm-counts-plumme...

Theodores 7y ago
The current thinking is that it is oestrogen in the water that is killing the sperm count. It is tempting to think this comes from 'the pill' but water treatment plants do remove it and the amount of women on the pill plus the amount of oestrogen pollution does not add up to cause a problem. What is apparently going on is intensive farming, so manure: https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/pressroom/presspacs/2011/acs-presspac-february-23-2011/new-report-dont-blame-the-pill-for-estrogen-in-drinking-water.html https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/pressroom/presspacs/2011/... So the new research that suggests that the swimmers don't swim as they should means there is a double whammy for the humble sperm. I imagine that if you are breeding dogs, cows, horses or any animal of value this is a serious threat to revenue. We won't necessarily do whatever is needed to fix our own fertility but if there are profits being affected in the world of pedigree pets then something might be done.
- chaostheory 7y ago
  BPA mimics estrogen, and it's everywhere: packaged food and drink, receipts, toiletries - really virtually anywhere you can find plastic, especially heated plastic
  - flatline 7y ago
    And yet the effects of BPA have actually been studied, and it should not pose such a wide health hazard. But, due to the public outcry over potential dangers, the industry has been moving on to other bisphenol compounds that are less well understood. I think there could be a whole host of synthetics that contribute to the problem.
    - chaostheory 7y ago
      Yeah, BPS is the popular alternative to BPA, which has its own set of problems.
    - smolder 7y ago
      The solution probably wasn't to just sidestep to other bisphenol compounds. I'd say it was to stop selling products that depend on them, and let the world adapt. I'd also be curious to know, have the effects of BPA been sufficiently studied? Have results been replicated? Do the studies at least sometimes have a funding source not interested in a certain outcome?
  - toomuchtodo 7y ago
    Hand sanitizer speeds the absorption of BPA from thermal receipt paper FYI.
  - smolder 7y ago
    And the proudly BPA-free products using substitutes were shown to be just as bad.
- jammygit 7y ago
  Are there residential filtrations systems able to filter it out? I wonder if the effects are reversible
- sdinsn 7y ago
  That's not the current thinking. A 2010 study showed that the amount of estrogens in water is 730 - 480,000 times lower than what occurs naturally in cow milk.

Theodores 7y ago

The current thinking is that it is oestrogen in the water that is killing the sperm count. It is tempting to think this comes from 'the pill' but water treatment plants do remove it and the amount of women on the pill plus the amount of oestrogen pollution does not add up to cause a problem. What is apparently going on is intensive farming, so manure: https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/pressroom/presspacs/2011/acs-presspac-february-23-2011/new-report-dont-blame-the-pill-for-estrogen-in-drinking-water.html https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/pressroom/presspacs/2011/... So the new research that suggests that the swimmers don't swim as they should means there is a double whammy for the humble sperm. I imagine that if you are breeding dogs, cows, horses or any animal of value this is a serious threat to revenue. We won't necessarily do whatever is needed to fix our own fertility but if there are profits being affected in the world of pedigree pets then something might be done.

chaostheory 7y ago
BPA mimics estrogen, and it's everywhere: packaged food and drink, receipts, toiletries - really virtually anywhere you can find plastic, especially heated plastic
- flatline 7y ago
  And yet the effects of BPA have actually been studied, and it should not pose such a wide health hazard. But, due to the public outcry over potential dangers, the industry has been moving on to other bisphenol compounds that are less well understood. I think there could be a whole host of synthetics that contribute to the problem.
  - chaostheory 7y ago
    Yeah, BPS is the popular alternative to BPA, which has its own set of problems.
  - smolder 7y ago
    The solution probably wasn't to just sidestep to other bisphenol compounds. I'd say it was to stop selling products that depend on them, and let the world adapt. I'd also be curious to know, have the effects of BPA been sufficiently studied? Have results been replicated? Do the studies at least sometimes have a funding source not interested in a certain outcome?
- toomuchtodo 7y ago
  Hand sanitizer speeds the absorption of BPA from thermal receipt paper FYI.
- smolder 7y ago
  And the proudly BPA-free products using substitutes were shown to be just as bad.
jammygit 7y ago
Are there residential filtrations systems able to filter it out? I wonder if the effects are reversible
sdinsn 7y ago
That's not the current thinking. A 2010 study showed that the amount of estrogens in water is 730 - 480,000 times lower than what occurs naturally in cow milk.