Originally Posted by BBC

Plastic chemicals 'feminise boys'

Male hormones drive boyish play
Chemicals in plastics alter the brains of baby boys, making them "more feminine", say US researchers.

Males exposed to high doses in the womb went on to be less likely to play with boys' toys like cars or to join in rough and tumble games, they found.

The University of Rochester team's latest work adds to concerns about the safety of phthalates, found in vinyl flooring and PVC shower curtains.

The findings are reported in the International Journal of Andrology.

Plastic furniture

Phthalates have the ability to disrupt hormones, and have been banned in toys in the EU for some years.

However, they are still widely used in many different household items, including plastic furniture and packaging.

There are many different types and some mimic the female hormone oestrogen.

This feminising capacity of phthalates makes them true 'gender benders'

Elizabeth Salter-Green, director of CHEM Trust
The same researchers have already shown that this can mean boys are born with genital abnormalities.

Now they say certain phthalates also impact on the developing brain, by knocking out the action of the male hormone testosterone.

Dr Shanna Swan and her team tested urine samples from mothers over midway through pregnancy for traces of phthalates.

The women, who gave birth to 74 boys and 71 girls, were followed up when their children were aged four to seven and asked about the toys the youngsters played with and the games they enjoyed.

Girls' play

They found that two phthalates DEHP and DBP can affect play behaviour.

Boys exposed to high levels of these in the womb were less likely than other boys to play with cars, trains and guns or engage in "rougher" games like playfighting.

PHTHALATES
There are many different types and the most commonly used are deemed entirely safe by regulators
DEHP - used to make PVC soft and pliable and used in products like flooring
DBP - used as a plasticiser in glues, dyes and textiles
Elizabeth Salter-Green, director of the chemicals campaign group CHEM Trust, said the results were worrying.

"We now know that phthalates, to which we are all constantly exposed, are extremely worrying from a health perspective, leading to disruption of male reproduction health and, it appears, male behaviour too.

"This feminising capacity of phthalates makes them true 'gender benders'."

She acknowledged that the boys who have been studied were still young, but she said reduced masculine play at this age might lead to other feminised developments in later life.

But Tim Edgar, of the European Council for Plasticisers and Intermediates, said: "We need to get some scientific experts to look at this study in more detail before we can make a proper judgement."

He said there were many different phthalates in use and the study concerned two of the less commonly used types that were on the EU candidate list as potentially hazardous and needing authorisation for use.

DBP has been banned from use in cosmetics, such as nail varnish, since 2005 in the EU.

The British Plastics Federation said: "Chemical safety is of paramount importance to the plastics industry which has invested heavily in researching the substances it uses.

"Moreover, the new European Chemical Regulation, REACH, will ensure further rigorous evaluation and testing or chemical substances and their uses."

Originally Posted by transjen (Post 117550)

Is this a true study? Or someone's idea of a joke as i dout plastic exposure made me Jennifer
:no: Jerseygirl Jen

Originally Posted by twistedone (Post 118130)

If this were true, I'd been a woman long ago.

Now, if you'll please excuse me, I have a sudden urge to smell some flowers. :)

Originally Posted by Tread (Post 118183)

The artificial hormones affect directly and over life. They raise the amount of female hormones in the body. Depending how sensible every individual is to the hormones, the relation between male and female hormones, and at what developing state the human is, it influences people. Female and male could get more female shapes, males can get less good sperm, and in early brain development it could support a female brain in a male developing body.
The biggest effects happen at pre birth and childhood.

Originally Posted by Mel Asher (Post 118492)

Here we have two sets of observations, one in the animal world among freshwater fish, and the other in the human world with its obsessive use of statistics, and a totally unproved hypothesis being constructed out of it as a result eagerly seized upon by a ravening Press. Ugh ! !

OK. How about this then : Never mind the Phthalates, how about their chemical kindred the Phthaleins ? They result in rampant diarrhoea in humans, so when I'm constipated perhaps I'd better chew some plastic ! How ridiculous an assumption is that ? Only slightly less ridiculous than the ones made about other chemical derivatives.
Trouble is, the Media can't wait for genuine research to run its course before feverishly rushing to Press.

I'd be a lot more worried about Fluorocarbons in the Environment, myself

Originally Posted by transjen (Post 117550)

Is this a true study? Or someone's idea of a joke as i dout plastic exposure made me Jennifer
:no: Jerseygirl Jen

Originally Posted by Tread (Post 118524)

I agree that Fluorocarbons are a problem that should worry us more. I.e. methane. Has 20-30 times stronger greenhouse effect than CO2, in suspicion to harm the ozone layer. About 70% of the methane in the atmosphere is caused by humans (fertilizer, farming, cattle farming), some indications that over fishing could increase bacteria produced methane, and huge stores in permafrost soil and methane hydrate under sea that both are released with temperature raise.