Agricultural pesticides disrupt male hormones

Scientific American

Many agricultural pesticides – including some previously untested and commonly found in food  – disrupt male hormones, according to new tests conducted by British scientists.

The scientists strongly recommended that all pesticides in use today be screened to check if they block testosterone and other androgens, the hormones critical to a healthy reproductive system for men and boys.

“Our results indicate that systematic testing for anti-androgenic activity of currently used pesticides is urgently required,” wrote the scientists from University of London’s Centre for Toxicology, led by Professor Andreas Kortenkamp.

Thirty out of 37 widely used pesticides tested by the group blocked or mimicked male hormones. Sixteen of the 30 had no known hormonal activity until now, while there was some previous evidence for the other 14, according to the study, published online last Thursday in the scientific journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

Most of the newly discovered hormone disruptors are fungicides applied to fruit and vegetable crops, including strawberries and lettuce. Traces of the chemicals remain in foods.

“This study indicates that, not surprisingly, there are many other endocrine disruptors that we have not yet identified or know very little about,” said Emily Barrett, a University of Rochester assistant professor in obstetrics and gynecology who was not involved in the study.

“This underlines the glaring problem that many of the chemicals that are most widely used today, including pesticides, are simply not adequately tested and may have serious long-term impacts on health and development,” said Barrett, who studies how environmental chemicals affect human reproduction.

The findings come as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency faces opposition from the pesticide industry after expanding its Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program, which requires testing of about 200 chemicals found in food and drinking water to see if they interfere with estrogen, androgens or thyroid hormones.

None of the 16 pesticides with the newly discovered hormonal activity is included in the EPA’s program, which means they are not currently screened and there are no plans to do so.

The EPA’s program has been slow to implement, largely due to a controversy over testing methods. Environmental groups criticize the EPA, which was granted the authority by Congress in 1996, for taking so long to order manufacturers to test only a small group of chemicals. But chemical industry officials say that the tests cost up to $1 million per chemical and the techniques have not been fully validated. They also stress that positive results don’t necessarily mean that the pesticides are harming human reproduction.

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One Response to Agricultural pesticides disrupt male hormones

  1. MadeleineT says:

    Ever since Monsanto and Dupont and Midland Damniels and the like started making food there are all sorts of things in food that should never be there, they know that. Pigs injected with human genes and veggies injected with insect genes, etc. Of course round up pesticide is infused into all of the food Monsanto makes, its their company so is aspertame, a real killer. If you buy round up pesticide in a hardware store for your garden it says keep away from pets and children but they eat it in Monsantos food.

    By the time we find out if these chemicals hurt men everyone will be sterile, thats the way it works. Then there is the Farm modernization safety act with the Codex clause in it, all food will be devoid of live nutrients, you will be feeding your children dead food, worthless food, including milk . How could the Government not know that can’t be good for you, they know, thats the idea, you will weaken, sicken and die , some sooner than others, thats why Homeland security doesn’t allow you to stockpile food or you are on the terrorist list , thanks to CFR member, John McCain you need a prescription now to get vitamins and food supplements. They want to make sure you don’t survive.

    It won’t be the first time a country starved their unwanted overload of people by starvation, China did it and so did Russia, now America has joined the communist elite. They dont’ care if the food is dangerous, they hope it is, strange how it may effect having children, that was a brilliant idea as far as depopulation goes, its better than that madman Bill Gates idea of forced abortion or vacinations or his latest idea of using mosquitos to carry a vacine. We have no one to support us, no Government , no Judicial system no house of UnAmerican activities, we are screwed in all honesty.

    These are perverted times we live in and perverted, insane people are running our Government, people we didn’t vote for and most don’t even know and no one to stop them. Obama gave the water rights to the UN via the Law of the Seas Treaty, that takes care of our water, no food and no water, what does the future look like to you? I don’t see a future.

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