No more babies? The hormone-altering chemicals threatening human procreation
By Eline Schaart | 3/10/21 | Politico
There’s a looming solution to all of humanity’s problems — by 2045 most men may no longer be able to reproduce because of the impact of hormone-altering chemicals.
That's according to Shanna Swan, a leading scholar of reproductive health. “The current state of reproductive affairs can’t continue much longer without threatening human survival,” she told POLITICO.
That adds yet another danger to the list of potential human calamities, but awareness of our looming reproductive demise still isn't widespread, Swan said.
“We're about 40 years behind global warming, in terms of awareness,” she said.
Four years ago, she calculated that the sperm count of the average man in Western countries had fallen by 59 percent from 1973 to 2011— making international headlines of a looming “spermageddon.”
Now Swan, an epidemiologist at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, paints an even grimmer picture in her book "Count Down," which was published in February.
Following current projections, sperm counts of the median man are set to reach zero in 2045, Swan and co-author Stacey Colino, a health and science journalist, write in the book. That means half of all men would have zero viable sperm and the rest would have very close to zero.
The reason, Swan said, may be growing exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals found in everything from plastics, electronics, food packaging and pesticides to personal care products and cosmetics — and as such are in the bodies of just about everyone on the planet.
Chemicals such as bisphenol A and phthalates interfere with normal hormonal function, including testosterone and estrogen. Even in small doses, they pose a particular danger to unborn babies whose bodies are still developing.