4 ms·
This shouldn't be dismissed out of hand, and I say that as a queer person myself. It obviously shouldn't be presumed true until disproven either, but if/when it
by zug_zug 3y ago
This shouldn't be dismissed out of hand, and I say that as a queer person myself. It obviously shouldn't be presumed true until disproven either, but if/when it gets dismissed it should be for conclusive scientific reasons rather that fear of offending.
- thfuran 3y agoIs there any particular reason to entertain it? If I give you fifty wild ass guesses as to things it causes, we can be pretty sure that, upon further study, at least one of them is going to come back as a positive result ( p < 0.05 ). That doesn't really mean anything other than that we've probably wasted a bunch of time and money.
- zug_zug 3y agoWell the main reason to entertain it is that that's how science works -- something isn't false until proven, it's unknown until studied. It's worth studying because if it's true we'd like to know it. Now is there any plausibility whatsoever? To my mind it definitely wouldn't be the weirdest scientific discovery of the last 20 years. Many of these chemicals are endocrine disruptors meaning they affect hormones. Some of these are so prevalent that we get exposed to them in-utero. And obviously sex hormones when the body is developing can impact one's development [1]. Some of these chemicals are essentially inescapable in our everyday life (BPA is even in the air at this point) but often at very low doses. So we don't know any direct link, but there's a lot we don't know. 1 - https://divisionofresearch.kaiserpermanente.org/in-utero-exposure-to-bpa-may-adversely-affect-male-genital-development/ https://divisionofresearch.kaiserpermanente.org/in-utero-exp...