Estrogens in Plastic Water and Soda Bottles Affect Our Boys
by Phyllis Wheeler ~ February 28th, 2009.The established American habit of drinking water or soda from plastic bottles is also one of the causes of a tendency of many boys to lose their drive and fail to grow up, according to a doctor-researcher. Leonard Sax, MD, PhD, says the synthetic estrogens found in plastics additives have been feminizing our boys and pushing our girls into precocious puberty.
In his 2007 book Boys Adrift, Sax describes five major factors contributing to what he calls a growing epidemic of unmotivated boys and underachieving young men. One of these five is environmental estrogens from drinks stored in plastic bottles, including baby bottles. Baby toys and pacifiers have contained the stuff too. What stuff? BPA and phthalates, used to soften and condition the plastic. Plastic bottles with recycling #1, used for bottled water and soda, are a key culprit.
Scientists are aware that the chemicals are environmental estrogens, and have focused on their tendency to cause cancer. Animal studies pinpointed the amount that would cause cancer in animals, and acceptable dose limits were created from those studies.
He poses the question: does taking estrogen affect boys and men? In recent years many Americans have been getting their water out of plastic bottles. And soda has been sold in plastic bottles rather than aluminum cans. As a result, Americans find themselves in a big experiment on this question. Aside from whether the plastic additives cause cancer, Sax says he believes they are causing delayed puberty and lost motivation.
The result of the extra estrogens, 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.)
The proportion of men aged 18-35 living at home with parents or relatives has doubled in the last 30 years. Meanwhile 36 percent of babies in the United States in 2004 were born to unmarried women. These statistics cut across all demographic groups.
Congress last year passed a law directing the Consumer Product Safety Commission to ban one of the estrogen additives, phthalates, from products sold for children as of August, 2009, including pacifiers and baby bottles.
But the Food and Drug Administration is the agency in charge of food and drink containers like water bottles, and it is choosing to believe the 11 industry-funded studies showing small amounts of BPA are safe. (There are 104 independently funded studies showing it is hazardous, according to Catherine Zandonella, MPH, of The Green Guide, an online magazine.)
To be a savvy and safe consumer, be on the lookout for a recycling number of 1, 3, or 7 on the bottoms of plastic bottles. If you see it, don’t use it. Especially, avoid beverages that were allowed to get warm in the plastic bottle, making it easier for the chemicals to seep out. (Acid in soda does this too.) Avoid warming food in plastic containers.
The other four factors in the epidemic of men who don’t grow up named by Sax are:
* Education system changes. Kindergarten has become a very frustrating time for boys, who are expected to sit down and learn to read. They aren’t ready, and as a result they learn to hate school.
* Video games
* ADHD medications
* A scarcity in our culture of traditions for transition to manhood
If this piques your interest, you should read this book. Everyone should read it, I think. It was an eye-opener for me and will be for you too. That’s Boys Adrift by Leonard Sax.
Are you concerned about the trace chemicals in city water and the hazards of plastic water bottles? Find out more about my search for the best pure water answer, which turned out to be a home water filtration system, costing just 8 cents per gallon. Find out about filter alternatives, including shower-head filters, at www.home-water-filter.info .
June 21st, 2009 at 5:13 am
I’ve been aware of an insidious and infiltrating menace of feminizizing our society for many years. The entertainment world has increasingly placed women as the heroes in more movies and TV series during recent decades. I’ve written an essay entitled “The Wimp” and it is noted on my home page drlutterbeck.com which focues in gest on the subject. We are being bombarded with this problem and may will be due to the estrogens in our environment.
July 27th, 2009 at 9:01 pm
If this is the case, why is every child not affected?
And couldn’t all this be linked to a change in society? Perhaps a sociological study could help explain this. Maybe some kids are being spoiled and thus have no reason to grow up.
July 28th, 2009 at 7:41 am
You raise an interesting question. Here are some thoughts:
1. Not every child is drinking a lot of bottled water and soda. My kids have mostly had tap water, for example, and little soda.
2. Our genetic makeup varies, and so does our response to environmental contamination. This is true in the case of potential environmental causes of autism. We all live in the same soup of chemicals, so why are only some individuals affected? The answer is genetics.
3. When you say kids are being spoiled and have no reason to grow up, that might affect the folks in their twenties and thirties. But for boys in mid teens, spoiling would have no effect on delaying puberty. The delayed puberty is what I see the most of, but then that’s because my sons are age 16, and I see their peers.
This delay in puberty for boys is real. I see it all the time. I told one mother of one of these boys about the problem with plastic bottles. They were indeed drinking all their water from plastic bottles. She banned them from her home. This was in March,2009, or so. Now, in July 2009, the boy has grown
about four inches and is clearly entering puberty. He just finished his freshman year in high school.
I know this is one anecdote, and anecdotal evidence isn’t great evidence. However, there are studies saying that BPA, the estrogen used in plastic bottles, does enter our bodies and is excreted in urine. It’s in fact an estrogen–it was developed as a synthetic estrogen, and the plastics industry picked it up as a plasticizer later.
We all want to trust the FDA to protect us, but we need to realize that it’s affected by interest groups and may not be doing its job.
September 25th, 2009 at 11:43 am
Yeah, women have been made heroes in more movies than there were in the past…But seriously, what is the women to men ratio as heroes in movies? You know that women can taste better than men, but there are more men chefs in the world. Women can hear better than men, but there are more men musicians and singers…I’m NOT a femenist- but I DO believe that men and women are equal, and that a majority of the world is run on male-dominated culture. But men are becoming more passive. That would go back to the begining of time when Eve was being decieved by satan, and Adam just stood there and watched, most men these days have that problem- they just stand there and watch. As kids they are lazy- as teenagers they learn to mooch off of their parents.
November 25th, 2009 at 10:50 pm
The point should not be about heroes. Movies are only a small part of media. On TV men are losers
and women are protrayed as smart.
More importantly, men are being exposed to massive amounts of estrogen in the water supply
And ADHD medications ( given to 95% of boys) actually do damage to the part of the brain that
focuses on motivation in the long term.
Video games stimulate the same part of the brain and have the same effect as crack/cocaine.
Everyone should read ” Boys Adrift”
November 25th, 2009 at 10:50 pm
i should clarify, i meant to say ( 95% of children taking ADHD meds are boys)