Environmentally yours

As I've said much too often, it's a dangerous world we've created for ourselves.

• The USDA has issued a massive recall of domestic beef — 143 million pounds of it. That's enough meat to make two hamburgers for every man, woman and child in the United States. The meat was produced by a company who was allegedly using sick and dying cattle as a meat source. The company has also been accused of inhumane treatment of the animals.


• An Israeli study published recently in The American Journal of Epidemiology indicates that long-term, heavy users of cell phones increase their risk of cancer dramatically.


• A recent study presented to the American Association for the Advancement of Science shows that once the genetic structure of sperm is damaged by environmental toxins, the effects can be passed down for generations. The study used rats who were injected with a known toxin which causes damage and overgrowth of the prostate, infertility and kidney problems. The negative effects were still present in the fourth generation.

Medicine | Health | Alternative Health News | Genetics | Environmental Toxins | Nutritional Supplements | HerbBlurbs.com | AltHealthNews.com

Plastic bottles, toys, beauty products may damage 'maleness'

A chemical found in many commercial products and in the plastic bottles that the products come in could be "destroying your maleness," researchers warn.

Phthalates are chemicals used in perfumes and plastics, are can be found in shampoos, baby powder, baby bottles and the plastic bottles your water comes in. These chemicals are known to cause reproductive problems in animals, it has been reported.

Environmental researcher Rick Stahlhut, MD, MPH said, "It might be having a negative effect on 'maleness,' you might say. And that might have other repercussions down the line, such as sperm counts and so on."

A study published in this month's Pediatrics shows a link between baby product use and phthalate urine content in infants.

Phthalates are known as "plasticizers." The chemicals are added to polyvinyl chloride to change it from a hard plastic to a flexible one. IT is used in bottles, in consumer goods (the iPod phone has been reported to have "toxic levels" of phthlates, for example, according to Wikipedia), and, curiously, in "fragrance" added to many beauty products.

Certain phthalates have been banned in Europe, and a ban on their use in children's toys takes effect in California in 2009.

Medicine | Health | Alternative Health News | Environmental Toxins | Phthalates | Nutritional Supplements | HerbBlurbs.com | AltHealthNews.com