Posted on 03/16/2002 3:12:34 PM PST by anniegetyourgun
Sperm counts are falling dramatically across Britain and the rest of industrialised world, and scientists are increasingly convinced that pollution is to blame.
Studies around the world have shown that average sperm counts in men have dropped by more than half over the past 50 years – from about 160 million per millilitre of semen to 66 million.
The Medical Research Council reports that the fertility of Scottish men born since 1970 was 25 per cent less than those born in the 1950s, with sperm counts continuing to drop by two per cent a year.
Other research by the US Government's Environmental Protection Agency shows that, proportionately, a man now produce only about a third as much sperm as a hamster.
Scientists increasingly blame a whole class of hormone-disrupting chemicals. Evidence suggests that they cause cancer and damage the immune system, as well as impairing fertility. And they are ever more ubiquitous.
DDT and other pesticides disrupt hormones, as do PCBs, used in countless products worldwide, from plastics and paint to electrical equipment.
Other components of plastics have been found to leach hormone-disrupters including phthalates, which have been found in a wide range of foods including baby milk.
Furthermore, an investigation by the BBC's Countryfile and The Independent on Sunday has revealed research, to be published this month, that shows that artificial oestrogens, used in contraceptive pills and emitted through sewage works, appear to be changing the sex of half the fish in Britain's lowland rivers.
Scientists and environmentalists fear that the powerful chemicals are getting into drinking water and affecting human fertility. One third of Britain's drinking water comes from rivers; most of it is taken from below sewage works.
The Environment Agency denies that there is any danger. Water UK, which represents the water companies, says that no hormone-disrupting chemical has ever been detected in British drinking water, and that fish placed in the water to test it did not become feminised.
But some scientists say that the chemicals may not have been detected, because there is no routine testing for them in drinking water, and because the equipment used in Britain is not sensitive enough.
Research at the University of Ulm, in West Germany, using more sophisticated techniques, found small amounts in four out of every 10 samples tested. And environmentalists fear that effects in people may occur over much longer periods than those used to test the fish.
Dr Susan Jobling of Brunel University, who led the research, says: "Unlike in fish, it is going to take 20 years to see if my children have been affected by developmental exposure to this same cocktail of chemicals."
So do we have any red blood Amercian males going to volunteer to help in this situation?
There is a beautiful island in the middle of nowhere where the following people are stranded:2 Italian men and 1 Italian woman
2 Dutch men and 1 Dutch woman
2 German men and 1 German woman
2 Greek men and 1 Greek woman
2 English men and 1 English woman
2 Bulgarian men and 1 Bulgarian woman
2 American men and 1 American woman
2 Japanese men and 1 Japanese woman
2 Australian men and 1 Australian woman
2 New Zealand men and 1 New Zealand woman
2 Irish men and 1 Irish womanAfter one month, the following things have occurred:
One Italian man killed the other Italian man for the Italian woman.
The two Dutch men and the Dutch woman are living happily together having loads of sex.
The two German men have a strict weekly schedule of when they alternate with the German woman.
The two Greek men are sleeping with each other and the Greek woman is cleaning and cooking for them.
The two English men are waiting for someone to introduce them to the English woman.
The Bulgarian men took a long look at the endless ocean and one look at the Bulgarian woman and they started swimming.
The two American men are contemplating the virtues of suicide, while the American woman keeps on bitching; about her body being her own, the true nature of feminism, how she can do everything that they can do, the necessity of fulfillment, the equal division of household chores, her last boyfriend respected her opinion and treated her much nicer and how her relationship with her mother is improving. But at least the taxes are low and it is not raining.
The two Japanese men have faxed Tokyo and are waiting for instructions.
The two Australian men beat each other senseless for the Australian woman, who is checking out all the other men, after calling them 'bloody wenkers'.
One New Zealand man is having sex with the New Zealand woman, the other kiwi is searching the island for sheep.
And finally, the Irish divided the island into north and south and immediately set up a distillery. They do not remember if they have had sex, because it gets sort of foggy after the first few liters of coconut whiskey, but they are satisfied all the same 'cause at least the English are not getting any!
But I believe that the are better endowed than hamsters.
I remember seeing one article: "You're Half the Man Your Father Was" or something similar.
Guess they're trotting it out once more.
That was my thought. I think it may have something to do with over-population. Or perhaps, with modern indoor heating and warm clothing (especially briefs), our vital equipment is simply too warm to produce high counts.
My guess is that it has to do with the unique English notion that a man pursuing a woman is an insult to the woman and uncivilized. Too bad Americans caught onto the idea and we get a bipolar cross of male-female relations in the good ol' USA. Between the homosexual-feminist jackboots on the left and the Bill Gothard legalites on the right, it is no wonder that we rely on unchecked immigration to grow the population.
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