"Scientists are uncertain as to how big,
or small, this problem has become...."
The health effects of pesticides have been cause for concern for some time now, mainly affecting
children, pregnant women, the unborn fetus and the elderly. But the health effects of pesticide
use do not seem to be of much concern to men.
Well, if the health effects of women and children
hasn’t given you cause for concern yet, maybe this study will.
In his alarming report, Dr. Louis Guillette warns that sufficient evidence already exists that we
should be refraining from use of pesticides for cosmetic purposes such as home lawn care.
I can see the advertisement now, like the workplace safety commercials that run showing the
gory happenings of workplace accidents. A stocky handsome young gentleman, wearing his
baseball cap and gloves, spraying an unearthly green lawn, with a saddened look on his face
saying "I wanted to have kids someday. But my penis has shriveled to the size of grub and my
sperm count is low. I should have worn my protective equipment.” And a sorrowful looking
lady, teary-eyed as she shakes her head in disbelief.
But the incredible shrinking penis problem
is no laughing matter.
Guillette, a renowned U.S. scientist who has spent the last decade studying the influence of
environmental contaminants on fetal development and reproductive systems of wildlife and
humans has documented fertility and sex changes; including decreasing penis size due to environmental contamination.
Delivering a special series of lectures in April 2006 at the
University of Western Ontario, Louis Guillette admits that he would not use pesticides on his
own lawn. “The use of these compounds just for cosmetic reasons, just because you don’t want
to make dandelion wine from your yard or whatever, I think is inappropriate,”
Guillette’s study is not the only one that should cause alarm for the male population.
Scientists are uncertain as to how big, or small, this problem has become. But the problem of
shrinking penises seems to be rising.
In July of 1992, an article published in Scientific American, showed that boys in Taiwan exposed
to PCBs while in their mothers' womb developed smaller penises as they matured, compared to
boys in Taiwan without exposure.
The finding of small penises among PCB-exposed human males tends to confirm that humans
and wildlife are affected similarly by exposure to "endocrine-disrupting chemicals" such as
PCBs, dioxin, DDT, and dozens of others, many of which are pesticides.
The endocrine system,
in wildlife and humans, is a complex set of bodily organs and tissues whose activities are
coordinated by chemical messengers, called hormones, which control growth, development and
behavior. In recent years, evidence has accumulated that several dozen pesticides and other
industrial chemicals mimic, or interfere with, hormones and thus disrupt the endocrine system.
In both wildlife and humans, it is the reproductive system seems most prone to disruption by
hormone-mimicking pollutants.
Science News presented evidence from several sources that males of many wildlife species
including birds, fish, amphibians, and mammals are being "feminized" by exposure to low levels
of pesticides.
Researchers have also reported that cryptorchidism, a condition where males are born with one
or more undescended testicles, has more than doubled in men during the last four decades.
Researchers at University of Wisconsin reported that low prenatal exposures to dioxin feminized
the behavior of male rats during adulthood, and sharply reduced their production of sperm. The
researchers concluded, the developing male reproductive system appears to be more sensitive to
the effects of dioxins than any other organ or organ-system studied.
Another study preformed by Dr. Hemavathi, University of South Florida, subjected mice to three
common pesticides in order to observe effects upon the animals sperm. Results showed that all
three pesticides caused a significant increase in sperm abnormalities such as double heads, small
heads, elongated heads, large heads, double tails, coiled sperm, and acrosomes (tip of the head)
bent upward or downward and some sperm without acrosomes.
Besides the obvious size of this matter, ladies have much to be concerned about as well.
According to the International Journal of Fertility, pregnancies ending in miscarriage were found
to have fathers whose sperm showed higher levels of defective sperm as well as lower sperm
counts. The most sophisticated analysis, published in the journal of the National Institute of
Environmental health sciences, indicate that the decline in male sperm count over the last 50
years may be as great at forty percent.
What puzzled me the most, while reading through a Newfoundland Applicator Core training
manual, that is presumed read by pesticide applicators, Page 86 Chapter 4, outlines in a pictorial,
an applicator silhouette with arrows pointing to the different parts of the body.
This pesticide
absorption rate chart, points directly to the area of the penis, with an arrow stating 100%
absorption rate. The statement above reads, “ Pesticides can be absorbed more quickly through
skin covering the head, armpits, small of the back, genitals and any area where moisture or
sweating occurs.”
What could they be thinking when reading the training? Yea Ma, this is the best job ever! Not
much training, little pay, a smaller penis – But hey, I get to drive a big truck?
Every morning as I delete my daily share of SPAM, I have the same email to throw in the trash
“Enlarge your Penis.” After some consideration I have decided to keep a copy of this email.
Many people ask my opinion on pesticides and what options I can provide; this may just be one
of the options I will have to offer in the future.
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