Health & Beauty
The chemicals that endanger our species. They are all around us and may be responsible for female infertility
Public health specialists have discovered that all the chemicals that surround us, in the contemporary world, have silent but devastating effects on women’s health, in particular. These are manifested mainly in the lack of fertility, but also in the appearance of very serious diseases.
We live surrounded by chemicals, many of them harmful. This is the reality of the 21st century confirmed even by specialists. Whether it is exhaust gases, the noxious substances eliminated in various forms by household appliances or the E’s in the foods we consume every day. It is not news that they affect our health. On the other hand, a group of Dutch researchers has discovered that all this harmful chemical world that surrounds us endangers our species. How? First of all, we make women and their reproductive system sick.
We live in a deeply harmful world
The study was based on the research of Professor Marjorie van Duursen, a Dutch expert in environmental health and toxicology, head of the Environmental Health and Toxicology section at the Institute for Life and the Environment in Amsterdam. Together with other European specialists, she studies improving women’s health. And over time and with the help of studies, she noticed that all the chemicals around us disrupt the endocrine system. This is especially the case with that group of EDCs (endocrine-disrupting chemicals). The expert found that these substances are everywhere, from the air we breathe to the clothes we wear. Not to mention cosmetics and food.
The most harmful and rich in these toxic substances are household perfumes, cleaning products, plastic containers and packaging for food, those casseroles full of bisphenol A, cosmetics full of parabens, shampoos and plastic films with many phthalates. Specialists have also identified these EDCs in non-stick cookware, but also in household appliances, furniture and textiles. And the most exposed are, in general, women.
And this is because they use a lot of cosmetics, work more in the household with household appliances and non-stick cookware, but also in fields of activity where all kinds of products rich in EDCs are used, such as hairdressers, manicurists and many other similar professions. “Working in a hair salon or as a maid – often ‘invisible’ jobs that are largely female – you are constantly in contact with cleaning products, shampoos, hair dyes, relaxers, straighteners, styling products, all of which can contain substances with endocrine disrupting potential,” Alexandra Scranton, director of science and research at the advocacy group Women’s Voices for the Earth, told Horizon, a research and innovation publication of the European Union.
The future of the species at risk from toxins
It goes without saying that the future of the human species depends on our ability to reproduce. And the figures in this regard are particularly worrying on continents with a high standard of living such as Europe. The birth rate is constantly falling and in the long term, the future does not look good. In addition to socio-cultural reasons, infertility is one of the causes.
Here is what official statistics show: the total fertility rate in the European Union was, in 2023, 1.38 live births per woman, below the replacement level of the population. And this phenomenon has been perpetuating for at least two decades. Specialists believe that one of the causes is also the excess of toxic substances around us. Those ECDs that interfere with the endocrine system and can result in infertility but also other disorders in the female reproductive system. “We need a deeper understanding of how these chemicals harm the female reproductive system and better tests so that these chemicals can be identified before they end up in the products we use,” van Duursen told “Horizon”.
The Dutch expert specified that these toxic substances are especially dangerous for women who want to have children. A working group called FREIA has been studying the effects of chemicals around us on the female reproductive system for five years. The specialists involved say, based on studies conducted on ovarian tissue, that exposure to ECD-type chemicals can lead to lower fertility or even infertility. “In theory, exposure to these chemicals, even in the early stages of development, can lead to fewer eggs and, possibly, early menopause and fertility problems,” the Dutch specialist says.
Source: adevarul.ro
