Green Guidance: Avoiding Hormone-Altering Chemicals

Androgyny on the fashion runway is one thing, but in the Arctic no one wants to see gender-confused polar bears. Yet according to scientists, one in 67 female polar bears in Svalbard, Norway, has developed a stunted penis. The suspected cause is exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals, particularly polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Elsewhere, the chemicals have been linked to female mollusks growing penises, fish bearing both sex organs, and reproductive difficulties among mammals. In humans, breast milk contaminated with phthalate plasticizers has been shown to alter hormone levels in three-month-old boys, resulting in “incomplete virilization.”