60 + years since Silent Spring: Where are we now?

60 + years since Silent Spring: Where are we now?
Endocrine-disrupting chemical exposures in early life, sexual identity and male fertility decline. Is there a connection?
Published: December 2023
By: Donald Maisch PhD
In: Journal of the Australasian College of Nutritional and Environmental Medicine, and Academia

Excerpts

Overview

It was Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring, published in 1962, that launched the modern environmental movement, by drawing attention to evidence on the biological dangers of the widespread use of DDT and other pesticides. Informed by interviews with scientists and physicians with relevant experience, Carson wrote that pesticides should more properly be called “biocides” because of their impact on organisms other than the intended target pests. She warned that the widespread use of pesticides would result in an accumulation of the chemicals in the environment resulting in an increased risk to human and animal health. Since Silent Spring was published, concerns for possible health hazards have grown as a myriad of other chemicals, many of which can interfere with the human endocrine system (endocrine disrupters), have been introduced. There has been little research conducted on the unintended long-term impacts of their use on human health. Read on: Academia

Chapters:

Early Research
The 1991 Wingspread Consensus Statement
Swedish Research On Chemcal Exposures In The Workplace
Later Research Raises Concerns
A Chemical Brave New World
Are Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals A Factor In Gender Dysphoria In Adolescents?
Male sperms Count Declining Globally
Sources Of Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (EDCs) In Today’s World
Concluding Discussion: The Anthropocene Epoch
References

Highlighting the complete chapter: Concluding Discussion: The Anthropocene Epoch

It was about 4 billion years ago that life arose from a primordial soup of chemicals after amino acids somehow managed to link together to form proteins and then later hormones from which the basic molecules of biological life formed, leading to life as we know it. All hormones in the human body (except sex hormones and those from the adrenal cortex) are proteins or protein derivatives. They are the body’s chemical messengers and affect many different processes, including growth and development, metabolism, sexual function, reproduction and mental state – all products of many millions of years of evolution. It is a finely tuned biological system where, in response to specific stimuli, the endocrine glands release hormones into the bloodstream for a specific purpose and maintain a stable internal environment. It stands to reason that anything that interferes with this process by triggering an inappropriate hormone response will most likely disrupt this natural biological process with unknown consequences. A prime example of this disruption would be artificial chemical compounds which can mimic natural hormones and can therefore interfere with the body’s endocrine system – the endocrine disrupters.

Today there are about 350,000 artificial chemicals in our environment used in plastics, pesticides, industrial chemicals, cosmetics, antibiotics and a wide range of drugs with very few of these chemicals tested for possible long-term health hazards. This problem was examined in a 2016 paper by Bijlsma and Cohen in which they called for concerted action to better understand the risk to health that lifetime environmental exposures pose for the individual. The authors saw such action as necessary at all levels of society, from individual patients, clinicians, medical educators, regulators, government and non- government organisations corporations to the wider civil society. (44)

The massive amount of plastic products and chemicals in the modern global environment has led some scientists to identify this feature as a hallmark of the Anthropocene Epoch, a geological age (the plastic age) in which human activities have to come to dominate the planet, after the bronze and iron ages. Microplastics are now ubiquitous in the earth, from the deepest oceans to high mountains and even in the air of the Arctic and freshly fallen snow in Antarctica. Since the early days of plastic production in the 1950s global production has increased 50-fold with the projected increase in production to triple by 2050 compared to 2010. This has caused concerns that this rapidly expanding production of new substances not previously known to the Earth is a cause of concern at the global level because these products exhibit persistence and widespread distribution and accumulation in organisms in the environment with the potential for negative impacts on vital Earth system processes.(45)

This paper does not suggest that gender dysphoria is purely a condition resulting purely from artificial chemical exposures to a foetus in utero and/or in infancy. This conclusion would be incorrect. Transgender people have existed in society since long before the invention of the artificial chemicals mentioned here. There is an extensive history of transgender people in many parts of the world dating from the ancient Roman and Greek civilizations .(46)

Gender dysphoria has previously been considered a relatively rare condition. However, in recent years there has been a significant increase in the number of referrals to both adult and child and adolescent gender clinics, with services being described as “becoming overwhelmed”.(47)

This paper seeks to draw attention to evidence that indicates that the recent increase in gender dysphoria and the declining male sperm counts globally may in part be due to exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals within a pervasive chemical environment that interferes with sexual identity and male fertility at a crucial stage in early life development. Any additional long-term effects that may occur from these exposures remain to be uncovered. For the future of humanity, the implications of the current state of knowledge needs urgent attention and corrective action for what constitutes a major public health crisis.

Comment (admin):

Since the increase in gender dysphoria and the declining male sperm parallels simultaneously the increase of cellphone subscriptions, EMF exposure, and the impact of too high levels of EMF radiation, caused by not protecting safety guidelines, based on flawed assumptions, watch video, 22 languages available in settings in the video menu, it is disappointing that this research does not pay attention to this. Except one short paragraph, to be found in the chapter “Swedish research on chemical exposures in the workplace”:

In 2008 a Swedish pilot study published in Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine found increased concentrations of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in people who reported suffering from electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS).(15) Although this was a small study, it indicated a larger study was warranted on the possible causative role of chemical exposures with EHS.