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.

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