| 'Gender bender' fears over pill pollution |
CONTAMINATION of water by the contraceptive pill is changing the sex of male fish and may be making Englishmen less fertile, new evidence reveals.
Fears over the "gender bender" effect of pollution, arose after Environment Agency research showed that half of all the male fish in low-lying English rivers are changing sex as a result of water pollution.
The source of contamination is believed to be urine from tens of thousands of women who use the contraceptive pill.
The government-funded research showed that an "exquisitely potent" form of the female hormone oestrogen, found in the urine of women taking contraceptive pills, was contaminating English rivers - source of one-third of the country's drinking water.
Male fish are developing female characteristics in many of those rivers.
Only minute traces of the biochemical result in dramatic biological effects.
"In some stretches, all the male fish have been feminised," says the report.
The Environment Agency's revelations, due to be published later this month, may explain the steep fall in sperm counts among Englishmen in recent decades.
"Danger to human fertility cannot be ruled out," said opposition Conservative environment spokesman Peter Ainsworth.
Professor Charles Tyler of Exeter University, one of the research team's leaders, said the oestrogen was so powerful that even undetectable levels could have an effect.
"So we cannot be sure that some of these compounds, albeit of very low concentrations, aren't getting into our drinking water," the paper quoted him as saying.
The reality could be even worse.
Water filtration systems taking drinking water from rivers are excellent for clearing it of bacteria but often cannot remove complex chemical compounds.
This makes it more than likely that sex-changing chemicals are making their way into domestic drinking-water supply.
James Bone London