Plastics ingredients could make a boy's play less masculine

Exposures in the womb to a ubiquitous family of industrial chemicals can subtly perturb preferences of boys for certain types of child’s play thought to be hardwired in the brain, a new study suggests. Phthalates are widely used solvents and plastics softeners. In this study, the greater a boy’s fetal exposure to certain phthalates, the less often he tended to engage in typically masculine play.

Girls’ play was unaffected, according to the study, set to be published in an upcoming International Journal of Andrology.

SOURCE: www.sciencenews.org...

Phthalates are used in a large variety of products, from enteric coatings of pharmaceutical pills and nutritional supplements to viscosity control agents, gelling agents, film formers, stabilizers, dispersants, lubricants, binders, emulsifying agents, and suspending agents. End applications include adhesives and glues, agricultural adjuvants, building materials, personal care products, medical devices, detergents and surfactants, packaging, children's toys, modelling clay, waxes, paints, printing inks and coatings, pharmaceuticals, food products, and textiles. Phthalates are also frequently used in soft plastic fishing lures, caulk, paint pigments, and sex toys made of so-called "jelly rubber." Phthalates are used in a variety of household applications such as shower curtains, vinyl upholstery, adhesives, floor tiles, food containers and wrappers, and cleaning materials. Personal care items containing phthalates include perfume, eye shadow, moisturizer, nail polish, liquid soap, and hair spray.[1] They are also found in modern electronics and medical applications such as catheters and blood transfusion devices. The most widely-used phthalates are the di-2-ethyl hexyl phthalate (DEHP), the diisodecyl phthalate (DIDP) and the diisononyl phthalate (DINP). DEHP is the dominant plasticizer used in PVC due to its low cost. Benzylbutylphthalate (BBP) is used in the manufacture of foamed PVC, which is mostly used as a flooring material. Phthalates with small R and R' groups are used as solvents in perfumes and pesticides.

As of 2004 manufacturers produced about 363 thousand metric tonnes (800 million pounds or 400 000 short tons) of phthalates each year. They contribute 10-60% of plastic products by weigh

SOURCE: en.wikipedia.org...

I found this article interesting. So this study is saying that fetal exposure to phthalates is responsible for the femininization of males. I wonder if this chemical is responsible for the "gay gene" in men? I suppose that if one wishes their male children to be masculine, then one should avoid this chemical; certainly during the gestation period. Anyhow, I figured I would share with you all...and maybe someone here on ATS has a personal story related to this chemical.

Enjoy!

reply to post by Aggie Man
[mo

Exposures in the womb to a ubiquitous family of industrial chemicals can subtly perturb preferences of boys for certain types of child’s play thought to be hardwired in the brain, a new study suggests. Phthalates are widely used solvents and plastics softeners. In this study, the greater a boy’s fetal exposure to certain phthalates, the less often he tended to engage in typically masculine play.

How on earth do these dudes in white coats figure this one out ?

Seriously, do the follow pregnant women around the place monitoring how many plastic bags they handle or something ?

No doubt there will be comments flying around that plastic makes men gay, hm

Originally posted by moocowman
How on earth do these dudes in white coats figure this one out ?

Seriously, do the follow pregnant women around the place monitoring how many plastic bags they handle or something ?

No doubt there will be comments flying around that plastic makes men gay, hm

I can only imagine that they determine this by blood-work. Or possibly by questionnaires regarding the use/exposure to certain products. Probably blood though.

No doubt this will raise the Q: about plastics and homosexual males; however, homosexuality has been around a lot longer than plastic, so I doubt that argument holds water.

A thread on this subject has already been posted.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Edit: I originaly skimmed through this post assuming it was merely a duplicate. My apologies to the OP.

In any case, the above thread discusses a similar topic concerning another plastic chemical, BPA, and it's effects on sexual health.

-Dev

[edit on 17-11-2009 by DevolutionEvolvd]

Originally posted by DevolutionEvolvd
A thread on this subject has already been posted.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Thanks for the link. That's good supporting documentation for this thread. They are loosely related, but not the same.

Anything else to add?

While I do think this is certainly possible, what I want to know is: what "ingredients" or "conditions" that a pregnant woman must be surrounded with, in order for her baby to have big eyes and a small nose(the two most common characteristics for being beautiful, for both sexes I'd imagine)?

Being less masculine is no big deal. In fact, it seems like many guys who are considered good-looking by girls, tend to have some "feminine features" about them.