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Sperm Count Dropping in Western World

scientificamerican.com

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Re: Sperm Count Dropping in Western World

#121

Post by AstralStorm »

dom0 wrote: post #111
AstralStorm wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But actual power lines and other total EM pollution might be. Perhaps at some point local power use (thus LF induction) exceeded safety margins afforded by physical isolation between cables and people?

Power line EM emissions have essentially ~nil power and a human is a very poor antenna for those frequencies (top of the head ~6 orders of magnitude too small), even at very high harmonics (n=20 is just one kilohertz).

Sure, how do you explain the leukaemia rates studies on people living near power lines?

https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/r... Kinda meh on cancer though not quite no effect.

Experiments abound on pubmed and so on, such as http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2305050015...

This would be easy to check by comparing rural and metropolitan areas with control for other pollution...

Re: Sperm Count Dropping in Western World

#122

Post by loader »

simonpantzare wrote: post #61
jostmey wrote: post #33

-- Sorry for the comment -- I've deleted it

I suggest you express yourself less harshly. On the contrary, if the _only_ thing you could leave behind were children maybe that's not the best branch to grow on.

Put another way, the easiest way to leave a legacy is to have children. But there are so many other ways!

Re: Sperm Count Dropping in Western World

#123

Post by euyyn »

felixbraun wrote: post #84
rsync wrote: post #48

Unless this is adjusted for activity levels (western folks are extremely sedentary - especially in the US) and weight I am not sure it is interesting. Obesity is negatively correlated with male fertility[1] and 3/4 of the US is obese or overweight[2]. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3521747/ [2] https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/health-statisti...

Countries with low obesity levels show the same trend [1]; just look at e.g. Denmark (18.2%) [2]. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10655308 [2] (PDF) http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/243294/D...

The thing to look at wouldn't be the country's current obesity level, but its trend there too.

Re: Sperm Count Dropping in Western World

#124

Post by ghostbrainalpha »

cameldrv wrote: post #72

My belief is that the primary cause is environmental chemicals, specifically Phthalates and BPA (and related chemicals). The science on this is fairly conclusive. We can show that these chemicals bind to estrogen receptors, that they're present in everyone's body, and that if you're acutely exposed to a higher dose, your testosterone goes down. In my opinion, these chemicals are having social and cultural effects bey…

> Someone clever though might be able to come up with a campaign about chemicals stealing your manhood that might resonate with conservative voters.

Have you heard Alex Jones? He is telling his listeners that the government puts chemicals in the water that are turning the Frogs gay. It is funny, but ultimately might make them more receptive to real environmental cleanup legislation.

Re: Sperm Count Dropping in Western World

#125

Post by scottLobster »

AstralStorm wrote: post #121
dom0 wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Power line EM emissions have essentially ~nil power and a human is a very poor antenna for those frequencies (top of the head ~6 orders of magnitude too small), even at very high harmonics (n=20 is just one kilohertz).

Sure, how do you explain the leukaemia rates studies on people living near power lines? https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/r... Kinda meh on cancer though not quite no effect. Experiments abound on pubmed and so on, such as http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2305050015... This would be easy to check by comparing rural and metropolitan areas with control for other pollution...

That link directly refutes your example...

"Numerous epidemiologic studies and comprehensive reviews of the scientific literature have evaluated possible associations between exposure to non-ionizing EMFs and risk of cancer in children (12–14). (Magnetic fields are the component of non-ionizing EMFs that are usually studied in relation to their possible health effects.) Most of the research has focused on leukemia and brain tumors, the two most common cancers in children. Studies have examined associations of these cancers with living near power lines, with magnetic fields in the home, and with exposure of parents to high levels of magnetic fields in the workplace. No consistent evidence for an association between any source of non-ionizing EMF and cancer has been found.

Exposure from power lines. Although a study in 1979 pointed to a possible association between living near electric power lines and childhood leukemia (15), more recent studies have had mixed findings (16–24). Most of these studies did not find an association or found one only for those children who lived in homes with very high levels of magnetic fields, which are present in few residences."

Re: Sperm Count Dropping in Western World

#126

Post by accountyaccount »

jostmey wrote: post #62
accountyaccount wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are even chemicals in our brains!

I put the word "chemicals" in quotation marks because, of course, everything is a chemical. I just wanted to point out that we shouldn't pick just one chemical (e.g. BPA) and heap all the blame onto it. As a society, we have to be concerned about the potential dangers of every synthetic chemical

I realize, you know, just being a jerk on the internet.

Re: Sperm Count Dropping in Western World

#127

Post by maxerickson »

dom0 wrote: post #116
maxerickson wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

North America has low population density relative to most of the world. Probably even more so if you do some sort of aggregation of the density that people live at rather than averaging population across land area. Suburbia and such.

> North America has low population density relative to most of the world. Well the quotient N(north america) / A(north america) is low, but this value does not have to match the average or median population density in areas around samples. In other words, yes, America is a big country, but it's big cities are just as densely populated as big cities anywhere else.

Well the quotient N(north america) / A(north america) is low,

It's infuriating that you choose to reply like this without accounting for both paragraphs of my comment. I mean, I'll just let it go, but c'mon.

I would say that US cities tend to be less dense and that Americans don't tend to live in urban centers as much as people in other countries.

Re: Sperm Count Dropping in Western World

#128

Post by AstralStorm »

manmal wrote: post #115
rubicon33 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was an excellent video/documentary that I watched a while back, in which a woman spent a month COMPLETELY avoiding plastics. Sadly, the BPA levels in her blood did not drop significantly. It seems that even if YOU don't come into contact with these chemicals, chances are your food already has. It informed me that if I really wanted to avoid plasticizers, I could never eat out, and would likely need to purchase…

And the alternative is.. taking estrogen blockers?

Especially dosing boys with them. /s

You have no idea what kind of harm this could do, BPA being the least of the worries in that case.

Re: Sperm Count Dropping in Western World

#129

Post by AstralStorm »

scottLobster wrote: post #125
AstralStorm wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, how do you explain the leukaemia rates studies on people living near power lines? https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/r... Kinda meh on cancer though not quite no effect. Experiments abound on pubmed and so on, such as http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2305050015... This would be easy to check by comparing rural and metropolitan areas with control for other pollution...

That link directly refutes your example... "Numerous epidemiologic studies and comprehensive reviews of the scientific literature have evaluated possible associations between exposure to non-ionizing EMFs and risk of cancer in children (12–14). (Magnetic fields are the component of non-ionizing EMFs that are usually studied in relation to their possible health effects.) Most of the research has focused on leukemia an…

That is for cancer which is much less sensitive to EM field exposure.

You said no effect. I picked the most well researched way to counter that. High field might be cancer risk (by the way comparing to general population could produce a wash if the background level increased), much less for sperm counts.

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