Birth control use remains rampant today. Its acceptance hangs in the air we breathe. And now we know it is also in the water we drink. That’s right. There is birth control in water you drink from the tap.
If you never heard this before, learn it now.
A study in 2009 found the harmful, genetic mutations that birth control pills can cause in a water supply. I credit Environmental Health News for a concise synopsis of the study.
SUMMARY OF THE STUDY
The researchers found that even a trace amount of a hormone found in birth control pills caused genetic mutations in rainbow trout. The fish experienced an error in their cell division, called aneuploidy. This caused developing fish to have the number of their chromosomes changed, causing defects.
Aneuploidy affects humans as well. It has been shown to lead to congenital birth defects, such as Down Syndrome, Turner Syndrome, and mental retardation.
THE METHODOLOGY AND FINDINGS OF THE FISH STUDY
The researchers exposed a school of juvenile rainbow trout to trace amounts of 17-beta-ethynylestradiol (EE2) for 50 days. EE2 remains an active ingredient in most contraceptive pills and injections on the market today.
The fish were just beginning to produce sperm, when the scientists polluted their water supply. After 50 days, the scientists gathered the sperm from the fish. Some of it they used to fertilize eggs from female fish not exposed to the polluted water.
The researchers’ analysis found aneuploidy 25 times more likely in sperm exposed to EE2.
In a healthy population of these fish, aneuploidy occurs 1.2% of the time. In this study, a whopping 58% of the developing embryos had the defect. About 42% had fewer chromosomes than they should have, and 16% had too many.
THE EFFECT ON HUMANS
Human beings develop from pairing up 23 chromosomes from the father’s sperm and the mother’s egg. Aneuploidy occurs when either the sperm or the egg contributes one too many or no chromosomes.
In place of a pair of chromosomes, a child could end up with three copies. This is called trisomy. Or, a child could have just one copy. This condition is called monosomy.
Defective sperm from the father can cause aneuploidy, but the birth defect is more commonly to be found in the mother’s eggs. A woman forms all the eggs she will ever produce while she develops in her mother’s womb. Thus, the damage is done in utero.
Men do not escape unscathed.
The sperm count proportionate to each man has decreased in the last 50 years, another study has found. At the same time, the levels of infertility among couples have shot up, as have reproductive issues.
Other studies have shown male reproduction systems negatively impacted among wildlife by exposure to environmental estrogen. Genital tract formations, embryonic mortality, intersex development, shortened sperm life spans, and lower sperm count have all been proven.
But how can men be affected by the synthetic hormones in women’s birth control pills?
IN OUR WATER SUPPLY
The answer may surprise you. Women do not absorb all of the synthetic hormones contained in their contraceptives. They pass out the excess in their urine. The urine travels to the waste water treatment plant through the plumbing system.
The water treatment plants cannot filter out the hormones.
That’s right. All kinds of filthy toxins join birth control in water available from your tap. Men drink the polluted water, just as women do. Thereby, their sperm can become damaged.
So, who’s feeling parched? Can I get you a drink of EE2?
YOUR TURN
So, is this the first time you learned of birth control in water from your sink?
How do you feel about this bit of news?
Please share your thoughts!
