
The Disappearing Male [video] - Alex3917
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7530701744597358451&ei=CA8qSfrUJ4b-qAP_mJz-AQ&q=The+Disappearing+Male
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kqr2
Video description:

The Disappearing Male is a CBC documentary about one of the most important,
and least publicized, issues facing the human species: the toxic threat to the
male reproductive system. The last few decades have seen steady and dramatic
increases in the incidence of boys and young men suffering from genital
deformities, low sperm count, sperm abnormalities and testicular cancer. At
the same time, boys are now far more at risk of suffering from ADHD, autism,
Tourette's syndrome, cerebral palsy, and dyslexia. The Disappearing Male takes
a close and disturbing look at what many doctors and researchers now suspect
are responsible for many of these problems: a class of common chemicals that
are ubiquitous in our world. Found in everything from shampoo, sunglasses,
meat and dairy products, carpet, cosmetics and baby bottles, they are called
"hormone mimicking" or "endocrine disrupting" chemicals and they may be
starting to damage the most basic building blocks of human development

~~~
Prrometheus
Are there any peer-reviewed, properly controlled studies used to back up their
assertions?

I could watch the video and track the references on my own. However, doing so
for every new consumer scare would be a full-time job.

By the way, I'm still happily using a cell phone and brain tumor free. I'm
hoping to live a long life if avian influenza doesn't get me. Long enough to
see the end of my species by catastrophic global warming, which is unstoppable
if we don't act drastically and soon, according to some folks with fancy
degrees. I figure I am pretty lucky - I got vaccinated as a child but managed
to avoid autism - so maybe I'll even get to be the last person left. I am so
hardy, I have even been exposed to second-hand smoke and managed to survive.
So yeah, I'll probably make it.

Anything you guys want me to do when I'm the last man on the planet?

~~~
tedshroyer
I read a book that devoted a chapter to this topic not too long ago called
Exposed by Mark Schapiro. The end of the book had dozens of pages of reference
citations. I think you could find the documents you are looking for by
checking it out.

Anyway, this sort of stuff has been under review in Europe since the late 90s
so it's not a "new consumer scare". The EU passed a temporary ban on certain
plastic additives there just before 2000 and have made it a permanent ban in
2005. Old news link->
[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4188/is_20050706/ai_...](http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4188/is_20050706/ai_n14689926)

~~~
Prrometheus
The EU doesn't need good reasons to ban something. It is every bit as
political as any other democratic body.

For example, see their ban on GM foods.

~~~
tedshroyer
I didn't make an assertion one way or another about it being a good reason or
a bad reason. I was simply pointing out that it's old.

As for resources, perhaps you can find a peer reviewed study in one of these
sites.

This site has pro-phthalate information -> <http://www.phthalates.org/>

This site has anti-phthalate information under the Chapter 3 section->
[http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/articles/exposeds...](http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/articles/exposedselectedsources)

------
steveplace
Found this post off reddit:

 _Don't be so quick to condemn "unnatural, synthetic" chemicals. Some of the
biggest troublemakers are plant estrogen that is sprayed on crops to increase
plant yields. This has been known, studied and re-studied since the 1960s.
Here's the science:

About halfway through gestation, a male fetus emits a small amount of
testosterone that travels from its testes to its brain. This tells it that it
is a "male" brain. If it does not get that bit of hormone, the brain remains
"female", by default. Importantly, while in animals this may determine mating
behavior, it DOES NOT DO SO IN HUMANS. So please set aside any ideas about
homosexuality, which is much more complicated than this.

If during early pregnancy, the mother either uptakes a chemical that blocks
this transfer, interferes with this transfer, significantly increases the
amount of estrogen in her body (usually from eating Tofu), or increases the
tiny amount of natural testosterone in her body (from other chemicals), it
interferes with the process.

While again, this will not determine sexual attraction, it will play some
considerable part in the secondary sexual characteristics of the offspring.
Either androgyny, more feminine males, or more masculine females.

When this was first discovered in the 1960s, they evaluated the gamut of
variations, even putting testosterone in just half the brain, but not the
other half, which resulted in both male and female mating behavior, the
animal, but not human, version of bisexuality.

To conclude, once again, humans are a lot more complicated. But this is a
serious problem._

~~~
Alex3917
"Don't be so quick to condemn 'unnatural, synthetic' chemicals."

Completely wrong. Phthalates and bpa have already been proven harmful.
Certainly there are other chemicals that mimick estrogens as well, but saying
we shouldn't condemn bpa and phthalates is ridiculous.

~~~
newt0311
Proven is a very strong word. Care to state your proof?

~~~
Alex3917
Unfortunately my friend took down her blog with links to all the studies, so I
don't have my original sources. But if you google _phthalates estrogenic_
there are a bunch of studies confirming the premise.

Also, it's been proven to bioaccumulate in humans, which, given that it hasn't
been proven safe, should be considered a harm in and of itself.

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cubix
They're not putting things into the proper context: Sure, these chemicals
probably are threats to human well-being, and figuring out how to remove them
from our environment is worthwhile. However, the 20th century saw an
unprecedented increase in life expectancy and quality of life, two great wars
and god knows how many chemicals notwithstanding. I doubt many -- even those
inflicted with the abnormalities mentioned in this documentary -- would choose
to live in the world before synthetic materials were available, in 1908, say.

Also, it's totally one-sided and they lose a lot of credibility with the
sensationalist tone of the piece -- ominous music, tableaux of helpless
children next to deadly chemicals, mentions of human extinction... Please.

~~~
ericb
_I doubt many -- even those inflicted with the abnormalities mentioned in this
documentary -- would choose to live in the world before synthetic materials
were available, in 1908, say._

We could make everything out of straw. Including men.

~~~
cubix
This isn't a straw man. It was open speculation (I doubt...) on my part. I
wasn't attempting to misrepresent their argument, but making the point that
the presentation is completely unbalanced. They make vague reference to modern
day synthetics being 'convenient'. It would be like denouncing medicine for
its side-effects and high cost while barely alluding to the fact that it saves
lives.

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pg
Can someone just summarize what compounds are thought to be responsible?

~~~
gruseom
[http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/doczone/2008/disappearingmal...](http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/doczone/2008/disappearingmale/chemicals.html)

Bisphenol A (found mostly in hard colored plastics) is becoming particularly
non grata (update: in Canada) these days.

Edit: according to the article it's also "the de facto lining used in food
cans". Wow.

~~~
pg
Sounds like the probem is stuff made out of plastic. Is that a reasonable
summary?

~~~
gruseom
I have the impression it's some plastics but not all. A rule of thumb many
people up here use is to avoid plastics with recycling number 6 (polystyrene)
or 7 (polycarbonate). These are said to be the worst.

Alex, does the film contain specific recommendations to consumers? (Normally I
hate using the word "consumer" to mean "citizen" but in this case it could
hardly be more accurate.)

~~~
Alex3917
I didn't watch the last few min of the film, but here is a good list of things
to avoid:

[http://www.sailhome.org/Concerns/BodyBurden/Burdens/Phthalat...](http://www.sailhome.org/Concerns/BodyBurden/Burdens/Phthalate.html)

Realistically it will be impossible to completely avoid the stuff until it's
made illegal.

~~~
gruseom
Given that the list includes water, I'd have to agree!

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tlrobinson
Why would infertility in males result in fewer males? Since reproduction
requires both, wouldn't it result in fewer males _and_ females (assuming
otherwise constant rate of reproduction)? I can't think of any evolutionary
explanation.

~~~
ericb
Males have only one copy of the X chromosome, which makes them more fragile.
Not sure if this is the mechanism proposed, but if male fetuses do not make it
to term due to environmental insults, there would be fewer males in a given
population.

~~~
tlrobinson
Yeah, I think that's one of the real reasons, but at the beginning they imply
it has something to do with males becoming more infertile, which makes no
sense.

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nazgulnarsil
WHy couldn't this have happened sooner? I would have preferred to be born into
a world with at least a 2:1 girl:guy ratio.

~~~
astine
Umm... The other half of the issue is not only increased male fetus mortality,
but also birth defects, like smaller genitalia and deformities thereof. So,
yeah, the odds are better, but you have no dick.

