Revenge of the pill

[Hakki Alacakaptan]

Falling sperm counts and a steady attrition in male sexual biology has been
blamed on ubiquitious industrially produced oestrogen-like molecules in the
environment. Over 70 common substances were involved and it looked like the
steady hermaphrodisation of men was almost as inevitable as global warming.
But today, there's good news: The real culprit is just the pill, not the
rest of the junk we produce. So ladies, if you're taking it, no peeing
please.
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http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?dir=58&story=275413&h
ost=3&printable=1
Male fertility fears over pollution in water supply

Half of all the male fish in lowland rivers are changing sex as a result of
pollution, alarming new official research suggests. The findings raise
serious questions as to whether the pollution is getting into drinking water
and affecting human fertility.

The research – to be published by the Environment Agency this month – shows
that male fish are developing female characteristics in rivers all over the
country. In some stretches all the male fish have been feminised.

Scientists conducting the research blame a particularly powerful form of
oestrogen in urine from the contraceptive pill, which is flushed through
sewage works into the rivers. Some fear that the "exquisitely potent"
chemical may be contaminating part of the one third of all of the country's
drinking water that is taken from rivers.
(...)