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Dangerous hormone-disrupting chemicals found in US breast milk samples

76 points by andsoitis 5mo ago

childofhedgehog 5mo ago
These chemicals are so prevalent that there is no way to avoid them without legislature in a country that is destroying the ability to CHOOSE motherhood. So we’re setting ourselves up for forced births where the babies have no choice but to ingest these chemicals which negatively impact them. Hopefully this research leads to action to prevent this, but will likely get swept under a rug.
RcouF1uZ4gsC 5mo ago
> The chemicals present a serious risk to infants because they likely interfere with hormones that are critical to newborns’ proper development, and have been found to be harmful at very low levels of exposure. About 92% of 50 samples were contaminated with at least one of the anti-microbials or plasticizers for which researchers checked. If they were that significantly harmful it would be massively obvious at that level of prevalence.
- estearum 5mo ago
  Do you mean potentially showing up as a global decline in fertility rates and multi-generational bioaccumulation of these compounds, threatening to destroy the foundational structure of modern civilization (population growth)? Well, do I have news for you!
  - akramachamarei 5mo ago
    Which is not to say that it's interfering with fertility rates by making partners less potent/fertile, because, presumably, we would have heard about a significant increase in failures to conceive. Or is your implication that it has affected sex drive?
    - estearum 5mo ago
      My implication is that there are indeed large scale changes that are totally concordant with large scale endocrine disruption. Desire to mate, sperm count and quality, rising obesity, falling testosterone, increases in testicular, prostate, and breast cancer, increases in autism and attention disorders, etc. etc. It's ridiculous to say that we know these aren't causing problems because "we haven't seen problems." We do indeed see very, very big problems population-wide that are similar to what we see in the lab when poisoning mammals with these chemicals. Presumably none of these problems is caused exclusively by EDCs, and potentially none of them are caused by EDCs at all. But there are plenty of changes worth investigating.
molsongolden 5mo ago
Has anyone seen evidence of lower levels in other countries? I searched for recent studies and it sounds like Canada and the EU have also reported similar findings but there isn't much widespread testing or totally comparable testing across locations.
SoftTalker 5mo ago
I don't understand how The Guardian readers get through a normal day. Every headline on that page is doom-and-gloom news designed to get you to be fearful or panic about it.
- zer00eyz 5mo ago
  https://www.whatisepigenetics.com/scarred-for-life-the-epigenetics-of-fear/ https://www.whatisepigenetics.com/scarred-for-life-the-epige... https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6414251/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6414251/ I don't think we are biologically far enough removed from "Oh my god, run, bear/snake/lion!" https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1376114/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1376114/ And we may not be built (biologically) for the level of comfort that the majority of us (more so here on hacker news) live in. I think the doom and gloom serves a purpose for a lot of people.
- bitmasher9 5mo ago
  Doom-and-gloom, fear and anger are the predominant emotions in the entire journalism industry. Very few places are doing any just-the-facts reporting.
  - tokai 5mo ago
    The articles cover an actual study, that wasn't theoretical but based on data of sampling. What kind of just-the-facts reporting do you actually want?
    - bitmasher9 5mo ago
      The language it uses to describe the story is clearly designed to make parents feel like the environment is unsafe. Cherry picking scientific articles to cover that will cause fear is not just-the-facts reporting.
      - estearum 5mo ago
        It... probably is unsafe for human babies (or even adults) to be ingesting compounds known to disrupt hormone production in mammals... Contrarianism has become a mental disorder
SubiculumCode 5mo ago
The uncomfortable, not even close to proven hypothesis, is that increased exposures to such hormone-disrupting chemicals are associated with an increased incidence of sex- and gender-diverse identities. That might be a good thing...I think sex- and gender-diverse people are wonderful and interesting...but the uncomfortable thought though is what that might imply in terms of the consequences of environmental policies. This topic is so fraught, I think there is a reluctance to engage except for those with an agenda, one side or another.
- junior44660 5mo ago
  Honest question: wonder why this "gender diverse identities" thing is not as prevalent in low income countries, who may be as much impacted by same plastics and chemicals, or maybe more (because of widespread pollution and neglect).
  - SubiculumCode 5mo ago
    1st, as I said, this is an unproven hypothesis. 2nd, the dominant impact on reported prevalence rates are 1) social acceptance of those identities, and 2) the relative risk in revealing those identities. If being stoned to death is the risk faced for being gay, people won't tend to admit to being gay to a researcher.
    - junior44660 5mo ago
      > social acceptance of those identities Why would it not work the other way too? Maybe the Western society is hell bent on putting people into boxes, whereas people in third world countries are willing to look the other way for minor deviations [sic] as long as they're useful to their family / village / society? If you didn't imbibe in your children that the only way to be a "man" is to be the jock on the football team, then maybe far less people would be suffering the dysphorias. Just like how exposure to Instagram causes body dysphoria in both young men and women. Sexuality is so front-and-center in the Western society unlike many of the third world societies which are below in the 'hierarchy of needs'.
Metacelsus 5mo ago
Sure, but at what levels? The dose makes the poison, and the article doesn't say
ComputerGuru 5mo ago
Did I miss the link to the study? I was wondering if storage contamination were a possibility? Breast milk storage bags are all plastic, and cheap brands abound.
- tokai 5mo ago
  I'm a bit confused by the article. It seems to be about this study[0]. Its the first item on Toxic Free Future's list of research. But the article states that Ryan Babadi is a lead author of the study, while there's no Babadi on the author list of the Nature publication. [0] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41370-026-00844-z https://www.nature.com/articles/s41370-026-00844-z
- OutOfHere 5mo ago
  It is an absolutely critical question. Were plastic/plasticized extractors or bottles used? Or was it collected at a lab directly into glass? Note that silicone isn't entirely safe either as substances like D4 (octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane) are pretty bad too.

76 points by andsoitis 5mo ago

These chemicals are so prevalent that there is no way to avoid them without legislature in a country that is destroying the ability to CHOOSE motherhood. So we’re setting ourselves up for forced births where the babies have no choice but to ingest these chemicals which negatively impact them. Hopefully this research leads to action to prevent this, but will likely get swept under a rug.

RcouF1uZ4gsC 5mo ago

> The chemicals present a serious risk to infants because they likely interfere with hormones that are critical to newborns’ proper development, and have been found to be harmful at very low levels of exposure. About 92% of 50 samples were contaminated with at least one of the anti-microbials or plasticizers for which researchers checked. If they were that significantly harmful it would be massively obvious at that level of prevalence.

estearum 5mo ago
Do you mean potentially showing up as a global decline in fertility rates and multi-generational bioaccumulation of these compounds, threatening to destroy the foundational structure of modern civilization (population growth)? Well, do I have news for you!
- akramachamarei 5mo ago
  Which is not to say that it's interfering with fertility rates by making partners less potent/fertile, because, presumably, we would have heard about a significant increase in failures to conceive. Or is your implication that it has affected sex drive?
  - estearum 5mo ago
    My implication is that there are indeed large scale changes that are totally concordant with large scale endocrine disruption. Desire to mate, sperm count and quality, rising obesity, falling testosterone, increases in testicular, prostate, and breast cancer, increases in autism and attention disorders, etc. etc. It's ridiculous to say that we know these aren't causing problems because "we haven't seen problems." We do indeed see very, very big problems population-wide that are similar to what we see in the lab when poisoning mammals with these chemicals. Presumably none of these problems is caused exclusively by EDCs, and potentially none of them are caused by EDCs at all. But there are plenty of changes worth investigating.

molsongolden 5mo ago

Has anyone seen evidence of lower levels in other countries? I searched for recent studies and it sounds like Canada and the EU have also reported similar findings but there isn't much widespread testing or totally comparable testing across locations.

SoftTalker 5mo ago

I don't understand how The Guardian readers get through a normal day. Every headline on that page is doom-and-gloom news designed to get you to be fearful or panic about it.

zer00eyz 5mo ago
https://www.whatisepigenetics.com/scarred-for-life-the-epigenetics-of-fear/ https://www.whatisepigenetics.com/scarred-for-life-the-epige... https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6414251/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6414251/ I don't think we are biologically far enough removed from "Oh my god, run, bear/snake/lion!" https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1376114/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1376114/ And we may not be built (biologically) for the level of comfort that the majority of us (more so here on hacker news) live in. I think the doom and gloom serves a purpose for a lot of people.
bitmasher9 5mo ago
Doom-and-gloom, fear and anger are the predominant emotions in the entire journalism industry. Very few places are doing any just-the-facts reporting.
- tokai 5mo ago
  The articles cover an actual study, that wasn't theoretical but based on data of sampling. What kind of just-the-facts reporting do you actually want?
  - bitmasher9 5mo ago
    The language it uses to describe the story is clearly designed to make parents feel like the environment is unsafe. Cherry picking scientific articles to cover that will cause fear is not just-the-facts reporting.
    - estearum 5mo ago
      It... probably is unsafe for human babies (or even adults) to be ingesting compounds known to disrupt hormone production in mammals... Contrarianism has become a mental disorder

SubiculumCode 5mo ago

The uncomfortable, not even close to proven hypothesis, is that increased exposures to such hormone-disrupting chemicals are associated with an increased incidence of sex- and gender-diverse identities. That might be a good thing...I think sex- and gender-diverse people are wonderful and interesting...but the uncomfortable thought though is what that might imply in terms of the consequences of environmental policies. This topic is so fraught, I think there is a reluctance to engage except for those with an agenda, one side or another.

junior44660 5mo ago
Honest question: wonder why this "gender diverse identities" thing is not as prevalent in low income countries, who may be as much impacted by same plastics and chemicals, or maybe more (because of widespread pollution and neglect).
- SubiculumCode 5mo ago
  1st, as I said, this is an unproven hypothesis. 2nd, the dominant impact on reported prevalence rates are 1) social acceptance of those identities, and 2) the relative risk in revealing those identities. If being stoned to death is the risk faced for being gay, people won't tend to admit to being gay to a researcher.
  - junior44660 5mo ago
    > social acceptance of those identities Why would it not work the other way too? Maybe the Western society is hell bent on putting people into boxes, whereas people in third world countries are willing to look the other way for minor deviations [sic] as long as they're useful to their family / village / society? If you didn't imbibe in your children that the only way to be a "man" is to be the jock on the football team, then maybe far less people would be suffering the dysphorias. Just like how exposure to Instagram causes body dysphoria in both young men and women. Sexuality is so front-and-center in the Western society unlike many of the third world societies which are below in the 'hierarchy of needs'.

Metacelsus 5mo ago

Sure, but at what levels? The dose makes the poison, and the article doesn't say

ComputerGuru 5mo ago

Did I miss the link to the study? I was wondering if storage contamination were a possibility? Breast milk storage bags are all plastic, and cheap brands abound.

tokai 5mo ago
I'm a bit confused by the article. It seems to be about this study[0]. Its the first item on Toxic Free Future's list of research. But the article states that Ryan Babadi is a lead author of the study, while there's no Babadi on the author list of the Nature publication. [0] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41370-026-00844-z https://www.nature.com/articles/s41370-026-00844-z
OutOfHere 5mo ago
It is an absolutely critical question. Were plastic/plasticized extractors or bottles used? Or was it collected at a lab directly into glass? Note that silicone isn't entirely safe either as substances like D4 (octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane) are pretty bad too.