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Columbia, US (pte054/03.05.2005/16:37) - A new study has found that contraceptives and plastic packaging could cause prostrate gland deformities in human embryos. The study was conducted on mice by Frederick vom Saal of the University of Missouri in Columbia, US http://endocrinedisruptors.missouri.edu/vomsaal/vomsaal.html.
Although it is common knowledge that deformities in the prostrate gland are linked to prostate cancer and bladder disease later in life, this new finding is significant because 3 per cent of women who take oral contraceptive drugs get pregnant without knowing, and continue to expose the foetus to the drug even many months into pregnancy. According to Vom Saal many women don't realise that not taking the contraceptive diligently will heighten the possibility of pregnancy.
In the US and Europe about 60 million women use oral contraceptives, of which three are missed per month. This results in about two million accidental pregnancies a year.
Researchers found that male mouse foetuses exposed to the contraceptive ethinylestradiol, and to low levels of a similar oestrogenic chemical, bisphenol A - a common environmental pollutant found in polycarbonate plastics and the lining of food cans - showed an increase in the number and size of prostate ducts and a narrowing of the bladder neck.
It is still arguable, however, whether the effects these chemicals have on mice are analogous to the affect the drugs have on the human reproductive system.
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