Falling sperm counts, declining egg quality, and endocrine disruptors • Hacker News Board

Re: Falling sperm counts, declining egg quality, and endocrine disruptors

#31

Post by alfiedotwtf » Tue, Feb 23, 2021, 7:38 AM UTC

nomoreusernames wrote: post #6

vincentmarle wrote: post #2

> Store food in glass containers, not plastic. Above all, don’t microwave foods in plastic or with plastic wrap on top. Avoid pesticides. Buy organic produce if possible. Avoid tobacco or marijuana. Use a cotton or linen shower curtain, not one made of vinyl. Don’t use air fresheners. Prevent dust buildup. Vet consumer products you use with an online guide like that of the Environmental Working Group. I really want t…

why do you want to reproduce? whats the point of forcing people to be born without their consent? whats wrong with nonexistence? is it not cruel to force people to become born and have to face the horrors of this place and then die and have all their loved ones die? i still dont get it to be honest. i mean i do, but i dont. but yeah to add to your list, dont partake in eating polarbears everytime a male in your villa…

> forcing people to be born without their consent

How could someone consent to be born?

Re: Falling sperm counts, declining egg quality, and endocrine disruptors

#32

Post by vladvasiliu » Tue, Feb 23, 2021, 7:39 AM UTC

nostromo wrote: post #20

vincentmarle wrote: post #2

> Store food in glass containers, not plastic. Above all, don’t microwave foods in plastic or with plastic wrap on top. Avoid pesticides. Buy organic produce if possible. Avoid tobacco or marijuana. Use a cotton or linen shower curtain, not one made of vinyl. Don’t use air fresheners. Prevent dust buildup. Vet consumer products you use with an online guide like that of the Environmental Working Group. I really want t…

It’s interesting they call out vinyl shower curtains but not vinyl and polyester clothing, which we wear on our bodies all day. Even most cotton shirts and jeans tend to be a blend with synthetic plastic fibers because it stretches and breaths better.

I think there's two issues.

The first is that I recall the shower curtain problem was related to the heat / steam floating around in the shower which facilitated shedding of particles and also ingestion. Having the "plastic" clothing just on the body may be less bad.

Also, and more importantly, I think people who are conscious about those things tend to wear less plastic fibers but won't necessarily think about the shower curtain.

For example, except for full on technical sportswear (think biking shorts), I never wear polyester or other synthetic fibers in clothing that goes directly on my skin. I used to avoid it because, for the most part, I've found that polyester is less breathable, tends to stick a lot, etc. I try as much as possible (I check the labels) to stick to cotton / linen (for the summer) / wool (for the winter). Now, the whole "plastics are bad" thing doesn't really push me to reevaluate my choice.

Re: Falling sperm counts, declining egg quality, and endocrine disruptors

#33

Post by heyoni » Tue, Feb 23, 2021, 7:41 AM UTC

nomoreusernames wrote: post #6

vincentmarle wrote: post #2

> Store food in glass containers, not plastic. Above all, don’t microwave foods in plastic or with plastic wrap on top. Avoid pesticides. Buy organic produce if possible. Avoid tobacco or marijuana. Use a cotton or linen shower curtain, not one made of vinyl. Don’t use air fresheners. Prevent dust buildup. Vet consumer products you use with an online guide like that of the Environmental Working Group. I really want t…

why do you want to reproduce? whats the point of forcing people to be born without their consent? whats wrong with nonexistence? is it not cruel to force people to become born and have to face the horrors of this place and then die and have all their loved ones die? i still dont get it to be honest. i mean i do, but i dont. but yeah to add to your list, dont partake in eating polarbears everytime a male in your villa…

What’s the argument here? Consent doesn’t really exist until the deed is done and someone is born…and although death is inevitable, it’s also a very small part of one’s life.

Re: Falling sperm counts, declining egg quality, and endocrine disruptors

#34

Post by m_eiman » Tue, Feb 23, 2021, 7:41 AM UTC

hilbert42 wrote: post #22

It would be helpful if we knew eactly what these endocrine-disrupting chemicals were. As is usually the case with such reports, this article is short on specifics. Over the years there have many reports from cleaners to plasticizers, phthalates, and various other chemicals as endocrine disruptors but no one has put a sufficient measure on the problem so that we can move foreword - put regulations in place, etc. As th…

There are lists available, e.g. https://edlists.org/

When the EU was debating the REACH regulations there was a big push to move to a "don't sell or produce it until you can prove it's safe" stance, but AFAIK it was significantly watered down before an agreement was reached.

https://ec.europa.eu/environment/chemicals/reach/reach_en.ht...

Then there's the problem of "chemical cocktails", where combinations of chemicals are more dangerous than each chemical by itself; this gets a lot of media space, but is even harder to research than individual chemicals since just about everything gets mixed up in various concentrations in nature.

Re: Falling sperm counts, declining egg quality, and endocrine disruptors

#35

Post by bpodgursky » Tue, Feb 23, 2021, 7:41 AM UTC

Would it be... unreasonable... to point out that the fall in sperm quality, egg quality, and overall hormonal disruption is happening concurrent with a blurring of overall gender identification, predominantly in the youngest generation?

Identification as trans or other non-binary status is incredibly high among the gen-z cohort. Might be unrelated social upheaval, but would anyone really be surprised if we weren't accidentally hormonally poisoning children at the same time they are developing their own gender identities?

Re: Falling sperm counts, declining egg quality, and endocrine disruptors

#36

Post by heyoni » Tue, Feb 23, 2021, 7:45 AM UTC

sneak wrote: post #11

Related: http://vhemt.org/ (one of the oldest websites on this here internet, as well.)

The point of that movement is to restore balance to earth, but what’s the value in doing so if no one is around to appreciate it? There’s really no difference one way or the other; it’s just a sphere in the universe.

Re: Falling sperm counts, declining egg quality, and endocrine disruptors

#37

Post by vmception » Tue, Feb 23, 2021, 7:48 AM UTC

dehrmann wrote: post #29

vmception wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My publicist used to do this all the time. We'd even go as far as ghostwriting the articles ourselves. This is an advertisement for the epidemiologist's book, which may contain the depth of information you are looking for.

You might be right. > Now Swan, an epidemiologist at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, has written a book, “Count Down,” that will be published on Tuesday and sounds a warning bell. And it's a book that just happens to be coming out this week. In the opinion column.

Yeah, there is nothing “organic”

We would even get listicles published where our service was like third or even tenth in the listicles

So if I was this author, and I imagined people wanted to learn more about “endocrine disruptors”, my book would be third in the list of books about endocrine disruptors on someone’s blog or respected site.

These arent necessarily paid for so I guess you dont need it to say its advertisement, the authors are just in the publicist’s network

The beauty of listicles and even articles like this one is that its not even about engagement. Like, sure your google results are going to look phenomenal but that just disarms paranoid people you date that will search your name, the article still is not even seeking organic hoards of people yet. Being mentioned along side competitors or elusive people in your field is way more powerful and makes it easier to open a dialogue with them. Like “oh hey we’re both recognized lets go on msnbc together”

Re: Falling sperm counts, declining egg quality, and endocrine disruptors

#38

Post by inter_netuser » Tue, Feb 23, 2021, 7:48 AM UTC

hilbert42 wrote: post #22

It would be helpful if we knew eactly what these endocrine-disrupting chemicals were. As is usually the case with such reports, this article is short on specifics. Over the years there have many reports from cleaners to plasticizers, phthalates, and various other chemicals as endocrine disruptors but no one has put a sufficient measure on the problem so that we can move foreword - put regulations in place, etc. As th…

We all know what these are. It's precursors to common plastics, and byproducts of their decay. Majority of these have been grandfathered as GRAS "generally recognized as safe" by the FDA when environmental laws first went live in the 60s.

The onus is therefore much higher, it is on you to prove they are harmful, instead of requiring producers to prove they are safe.

Nobody wants to stick their neck out because the petrochemicals lobby will go after you, your career and your family.

The only way to get this fixed is to require producers to conduct testing to prove they do not disrupt endocrine systems of not only humans, but other animals, insects and so on.

I'm just not sure the political will is there.

Re: Falling sperm counts, declining egg quality, and endocrine disruptors

#39

Post by WalterGR » Tue, Feb 23, 2021, 7:50 AM UTC

vkou wrote: post #5

bloak wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So much "plastic" packaging nowadays (in the UK) is labelled with "Do not recycle" but no indication of what it's made of. This has annoyed me from an environmental point of view, but probably one should look at it from a health point of view, too. Perhaps those items are made from a material that the manufacturers know has potential health implications and that's why they're carefully not saying what it is? Perhaps…

> Perhaps those items are made from a material that the manufacturers know has potential health implications and that's why they're carefully not saying what it is? Unlikely. It's more likely that they don't know, because they didn't look too hard. The reason it's not recyclable has nothing to do with that, though. It's not recyclable because plastic recycling is very difficult, many plastics can't be recycled, and o…

any contaminants will ruin an entire batch. Food is an example of such a contaminant.

This is a myth.

Re: Falling sperm counts, declining egg quality, and endocrine disruptors

#40

Post by inter_netuser » Tue, Feb 23, 2021, 7:56 AM UTC

This affects not only humans, but the entire ecosystems.

This disruption is happening right now, and is the cause of the die off of many species.

It's a true emergency. TODAY.