Chemicals in the World of the Unborn
Chemicals in the World of the Unborn When young women who lived beside the Love Canal chemical dumpsite tell the press of the repeated miscarriages they have suffered, when Vietnam veterans exposed...
...1 At least 25 per cent of all recognized pregnancies end in spontaneous abortions...
...This seepage of chemical pollutants into the world of the unborn makes for apocalyptic thoughts...
...Sherman's observations are backed by other research, particularly that of Dr...
...As the study notes, the real figure may be considerably higher, since some losses occur before the woman knows she is pregnant...
...No research of similar detail has yet been done on birth defects, so the mapping in the Council on Environmental Quality's study can provide no firm conclusions...
...Then, citing several other reviews of sperm counts, he said his findings pointed to a general and significant decline in male fertility over the past thirty years—a period in which production of synthetic chemicals has increased by more than 550 per cent...
...Our understanding today of the role of pollutants in producing birth defects, it says, is roughly equal to our understanding a decade ago of the role of pollutants in producing cancer...
...That can keep the regulatory battles over individual chemicals going for more than a decade...
...It is cautious in assessing the contribution of environmental pollution to the problems...
...states such as Ohio, Illinois, and Iowa reported rates two to three times higher than states which have few birth-defect problems...
...The pelicans were wiped out not by acute toxicity, but by reproductive failure...
...This also suggests a triggering factor: an environmental agent that mutated the genes of prospective parents, making their offspring more susceptible to other contaminants while in the womb...
...Sherman of the University of Arkansas...
...If we can find similar things happening to humans, I hope we can turn it around before it's too late...
...In the past, some birth defects have appeared in near-epidemic waves...
...Similar statistical evidence was crucial in establishing the link between environmental pollutants and cancer, which now strikes one of every four Americans and is the country's second-largest cause of death...
...Chemical companies and their lawyers demand achingly difficult proof of harm before a chemical can be banned as a health hazard...
...There's- no question in my mind that the semen analysis is not as good as it was twenty years ago, fifteen years ago, even ten years ago," he says...
...Since sperm production requires eight to ten cell division steps, it is a uniquely sensitive indicator of substances that impede cell division...
...When the National Cancer Institute mapped cancer incidence throughout the country, it found a number of cancer "hot-spots" in heavily industrialized and polluted areas...
...Ralph Dougherty of Florida State University...
...Dougherty has become something of a celebrity through his work on toxic chemicals and subfertility...
...For twenty years, Sherman has been collecting sperm samples from medical students for a sperm bank that supplies doctors performing artificial inseminations...
...When defects that only became apparent later in life are included, that figure doubles to one in six...
...Chemicals in the World of the Unborn When young women who lived beside the Love Canal chemical dumpsite tell the press of the repeated miscarriages they have suffered, when Vietnam veterans exposed to the toxic herbicide Agent Orange bring their crippled children before Congress, the chemical industry invariably responds that a link between its products and these unfortunate problems cannot be made—the scientific evidence is too soft to draw conclusions...
...That's apparent in these figures, culled from the scientific literature by the Council on Environmental Quality in a study released on the last day of the Carter Administration: f One of every twelve children has birth defects that will be recognized before the child's first birthday...
...So much academic smoke and fire were stoked by the suggestion that American men weren't quite as virile as they used to be that another key part of Dougherty's, work was virtually overlooked...
...While the lawyers and scientists argue in obscure hearing rooms, new chemicals continue to be marketed and turn up, along with the 40,000 or so already in use, in air, food, and water...
...The researchers discovered that the rates of birth defects vary widely between states, and even among counties within states...
...In sum, the report says, "Reproductive impairments of one kind or another are both frequent and widespread in the U.S...
...From 1920 to 1955, the northeastern United States suffered an upsurge of central nervous system malformations, comparable to what Dwight T. Janerich of New York State's Cancer Control Bureau has called "the epidemic of lung cancer that we are now experiencing...
...Another clue comes from Dr...
...Sherman figures that only about two of every ten students who apply meet the clinic's standards for high sperm counts, active cells, and an unblemished genetic history...
...And those substances, as Dougherty explains, often cause cancer or genetic mutations as well...
...That wave has now subsided, but scientists still have no idea what set it off...
...for example, recent research has shown that large numbers of premature babies are afflicted by internal bleeding in their brains that can lead to brain damage or death...
...And so is the evidence that something is wrong...
...Both conditions increase the likelihood of health problems...
...In one of Dougherty's studies, 23 per cent of the students tested had sperm counts low enough to make fathering of children unlikely, if not impossible...
...But the questions are piling up...
...published this year by Sierra Club Books...
...f About 7 per cent of babies are born prematurely, and another 7 per cent of those born at full-term are underweight...
...In analysis of the biosphere," says Dougherty, "the first to go [in a failing species] is always reproductive biology...
...No one knows exactly how many birth defects and spontaneous abortions are caused by toxic pollutants...
...population...
...The discrepancies suggest the importance of environmental factors— including everything from pollution to cigarette smoking—in triggering reproductive problems...
...But the study does present a valuable clue...
...The artificial insemination business is booming—an indication itself of reproductive breakdown—but donors who make the grade are becoming tougher to find...
...Whatever the cause, the pattern of disease did not conform to what might be expected from heredity models...
...Even with a more receptive Administration, it would take some time for any of this to be factored into environmental and occupational health policy decisions...
...Using sophisticated statistical techniques, he attributed a quarter of the decline to the sperm's contamination with DDT, break-down products of 2,4,5-T (a component of Agent Orange), and other pesticides and industrial chemicals...
...Ronald Brownstein (Ronald Brownstein is the author of "Who's Poisoning America...
...One county in New Mexico had a birth defect rate twenty-eight times higher than another...
...But other evidence is also available...
Vol. 45 • November 1981 • No. 11
