I think I'm probably the only one who was not fully aware of plastics and other petrochemicals and their impact on our bodies. I've been watching some of the documentaries available on the website Documentary Heaven. An excellent site if you like documentaries. Not all of them are great or even good - some of them are just appealing to the voyeur in us. I don't know if it's that I have not watched enough of them yet, but I found that the Canadian and UK documentaries so far have been the most informative and the US offerings were more about fear, uncertainty and doubt.
So back to my original point on chemicals. There was a very interesting documentary on the drop in numbers of males being born and the theories were that the boom in the use of petrochemicals, which have not been tested on their effects on humans and animal life, have contributed to this sudden decrease. The studies into this phenomenon were started by scientists who were studying the effects of pollutants on the numbers of animals being born within certain environments e.g. a lake in Florida was the nesting site of a group of alligators and in recent times the numbers of males being born had dramatically fallen and the development of the male reproductive systems of those were found to be underdeveloped. The lake in question was one of the most polluted lakes within the Florida country due to the run off from nearby farms using pesticides and fertilisers and up until recently the banned DDT.
Fertility scientists and doctors specialising in the field of human fertility were interviewed and discussed the findings they had discovered. Fewer men were producing viable sperm therefore the numbers of couples seeking fertility treatment had risen exponentially. One couple interviewed about their experiences told the interviewer that although they were both perfectly healthy they could not conceive without the help of the fertility clinic. When the husbands sperm was tested they found that the volume and numbers were good but the sperm had difficultly in finding the way to the egg. A doctor from a sperm bank also spoke of this issue and how there were less viable sperm donations but the numbers of donors had not dropped just the quality of the donations.
A town in Canada was filmed to attempt to show the connection between petrochemicals and the drop in the birth rate of boys. The town was surrounded by a number of petrochemical processing plants which produced hundreds of thousands of chemicals and toxins which were released into the surrounding environment. Over the last few years it was noted the drop in the birthrate of boys and the increased number of women who were having difficulties carrying a foetus to term.
I won't go into any further detail on what this fantastic documentary contained as I wouldn't wish to ruin it for those who had not watched it. But after watching it I did have a closer look at the moisturiser I had bought recently at a company who advertise their products as all natural and found it to have two parabens in it. I then looked at the rest of the skin care products that I owned and found all but two contained the minimum of two parabens. Suffice to say I have since removed them. I know that that is just the smallest area where we are affected by petrochemicals but if I can reduce my chances of developing any of the known side effects that are found through usage of products containing these items then I will do as much as I can.
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