Plastics containing synthetic estrogens have been emasculating our boys (and bringing precocious puberty to our girls), along with some other factors, according to family physician and research psychologist Leonard Sax. These plastics are found in bottles holding soda, water, and other beverages.
Sax lists five major factors contributing to an epidemic of underachievement among boys and men, in his 2007 book “Boys Adrift.” One of the five major factors is synthetic estrogen from plastic bottles, including baby bottles, and also baby toys and pacifiers. Bottles with a recycling number of 1 are mostly to blame. These all contain phthalates and BPA, synthetic estrogens that soften the plastic and make it great for making bottles.
Scientists are aware that BPA and phthalates are environmental estrogens. But they don’t agree on how much is a harmful dose. The industry conducted animal studies looking for cancer. Acceptable limits are based on the dose causing cancer in those animal studies.
But Sax brings up another point: what is the effect on a male, taking estrogen? Bottled water became popular 10 or 15 years ago, and meanwhile the soft drink manufacturers switched from aluminum cans to plastic bottles. So in effect we are all part of a vast experiment on this question, of what is the effect of taking estrogen on a male. Aside from the cancer question, Sax suggests that it’s causing young males to lose motivation (and enter puberty later).
The result of this, along with four other factors, is affecting a population of men who haven’t grown up, says Sax. He cites some interesting studies. One looks at men in the age group of 35 to 40. Normally, men this age are married. In fact, only 25 years ago, only 8 percent of American men in this age group had never married. But as of 2006 that 8 percent had nearly tripled. It was up to 22 percent and still rising rapidly. (He cites Eduardo Porter and Michelle O’Donnell, “Facing Middle Age with No Degree and No Wife,” New York Times, Aug. 6, 2006.)
Other studies showed the proportion of men under 35 who never left home has doubled in the past 30 years. Also, 36 percent of babies born in 2004 in the U.S. were born to single women. That’s single women of all demographic categories.
Congress, through the Consumer Product Safety Commission, is banning phthalates from products sold for use by children under 12 as of August, 2009. This includes baby bottles and pacifiers.
However, the Food and Drug Administration controls food and drink and its containers. It has decided to believe 11 industry-funded studies showing that BPA is safe, in small amounts. But there are 104 independent studies that show it is a hazard, according to Catherine Zandonella, MPH, in the online magazine The Green Guide.
Therefore, let the buyer beware. Avoid beverages in plastic bottles (#1, 3, or 7 on the bottom, if you want to check). Especially, avoid allowing the full bottles to get warm, a condition in which the chemical is more likely to leach. In addition, avoid drinking soda from such bottles because the acid will leach the chemical out. And avoid warming food in the microwave in plastic containers.
The epidemic of men and boys who don’t grow up has four other causes as well, as seen by Sax:
* Requirements to sit still in kindergarten. Children these days are taught to read in kindergarten, at an age when most boys aren’t ready. So they begin to hate school.
* Video games
* ADHD medications
* A scarcity in our culture of traditions for transition to manhood
Interested? You should take a look at Sax’s book. You’ll find it quite an eye-opener. I did.
