For those of you who still haven’t realized this issue, BPA (Bisphenol-A) is a really hot topic and very important for every American to get informed on.  It effects your children, and your health.

Another article from our investigative journalist s5:

Men are disappearing.  But, it doesn’t matter much.  We can make sperm in a lab.

I know you haven’t seen any news about the first statement.  Not sure if you have seen it about the second.  But, yes, that is the latest scientific finding of last week: we can engineer sperm in a scientific setting, without the need for an actual human.

When I first heard about the story, I was told of it.  Immediately I was asked, “ what do you think of that?”  At the time, I just answered that I didn’t see to what end this discovery was relevant.  I went on to say that independent of itself it didn’t hit me as anything truly useful except being a step in a bigger scientific discovery.

But the more I thought about it, the more some other pieces came together.  Which leads me back to my first statement.  Men are disappearing.

I want to make sure you understand that this sentence is independent of the one that follows.  I am not saying that we can make sperm, therefore we don’t need men.  I am saying, quite clearly and as a stand alone statement: men are disappearing.

Currently, in almost every product you can buy at the super market, exists two chemicals: Bisphenol-A and phthalates (pronounced: thay-lates).  They are both found in plastics, however Bisphenol-A is also found in cans and phthalates are found in things like artificial scents.  What this means is that if you do any of the following you are exposing yourself to one or both of these compounds:

drink from a plastic water bottle (whether personal size, water cooler size or sink top water filtration system), drink soda, eat a canned product (tomato sauce, beans, soup, fruit), ingest a gel-cap pharmaceutical, use an odorized laundry detergent or dryer sheet, use deodorant, use perfume, play with a toy, drink from a baby bottle, use a tupperware or other plastic food container, wear a condom, use a “sex toy”, have a shower curtain, use a laser printer, wear make-up, use nail polish, own a television, have floor tiles in your home, have any sort of electronic, use skin moisturizer, have a catheter, use a fertilizer or pesticide, eat something with a fertilizer or pesticide, and more.

In other words, you are exposed to these chemicals in some way or another.  You are naive to think you are not.

You ask: so what?  I am exposed to lots of things like air pollution and electro-magnetic fields, what’s one more thing?

There is a long history behind these chemicals, and I encourage you to do your own research to determine what is best for you and your family.  I am about to share with you what I believe to be true.

Both of these chemicals have weak or no covalent bonds to the plastic or substance with which they are mixed.  This means that as the plastic ages or is placed under certain conditions, the chemical is released into the environment and is absorbable by the human body.  In fact, 99% of the American adults and children tested have the chemicals present in their bodies.

These chemicals are classified as estrogenic.  This means that they are able to mimic hormones in the system and the hormone the body registers is estrogen.  For the sake of brevity, I will not go into detail about the entire functionality of the human form.  I will get to the point which is that many scientists believe that as a result of the increase of BPA and phthalates in our environment we are seeing an increase in birth defects, cancers, learning disabilities, reproductive function issues including sterility/infertility, and possible links to obesity and diabetes. Male children are the most at risk from these chemicals.  In effect, our boys are becoming girls.  For one thing, not as many boys are being born.  When they are, we are seeing an increase in deformities of their penises, breast formation, sterility, testicular issues, and more.

Men are disappearing.

There are two camps when it comes to the science of these compounds.  The Food and Drug Administration did approve these chemicals for use and as of today is not planning on banning them, despite protests from a majority of the scientific community.  The argument is that the chemicals were approved due to the results of two studies, that the government contends are valid and statistically significant.  However, there are another group of researchers that say future studies have indicated that the chemicals are dangerous and because of the new results, the FDA should review the validity of the approval.

I will tell you why this isn’t going to happen.  Dow and DuPont are the makers of these chemicals and it is a ten+ billion dollar industry for them.  They are a part of the American Chemical Council which funded the first two studies that granted the approval from the FDA.  The ACC is a major contributor to a handful of our legislators.  There are allegations that the FDA allowed staff from Dow and DuPont to write the safety and efficacy portion of the approval package of these chemicals.  Dow and DuPont are suing Canada, because they banned the chemicals, saying that it is violation of NAFTA.  And, I have seen meeting minutes from a gathering of executives from Coca-Cola, Del Monte, Grocery Manufacturers Association and others, in which they discuss a strategy and multi-corporation funding for how to change the press regarding BPA (Remember, it is used in canned goods.  These companies have a vested interest in not having these chemicals be reevaluated.)

This is a war between corporations and the consumer, on the government’s battlefield, being played out in front of our eyes, yet, none of us are paying attention.  But, what do we know about?  We can make sperm.

This may be a rabbit hole none of us want to go down.  I am very well aware of the fact that it can appear as though I am making an accusation of a conspiracy.  However, both things are true.  All the data I gave you about BPA and phthalates, you can find on the internet.  If you look you can find in major news outlets across the US.  If you know to look for it.  The fact that we can make sperm was the biggest scientific news item of last week.  You didn’t have to look for it, it came to you. (No pun intended).

So before when I asked myself “to what end”?  I wonder if the two are inextricably linked.  What if the chemical companies knew there would be issues with the compounds?  They were so advanced in forethought that they put people on researching to determine how to create what would be missing when our boys reached maturity after being exposed to years of plastics, toys, beauty products, medication, and food.  But then in the media there is no link between the two groups, so we as the public, still stay blind to what is really going on?

And then what happens when we can only reproduce with influence from the scientific community? How do we know what kind of sperm we are getting?  Are certain people going to have access to better sperm than other people?  Are we going to be able to actually clean out economic or ethic strata because of their lack of availability to sperm, therefore reproduction?

A lot of questions that we all may be confronted with sometime in the future.

Or… we can change how we consume.