Topic: Would any men here like to experience the joys of motherhood?

[Centurus]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,245002,00.html?sPage=fnc.science/naturalscience

Male Fish With Female Organs Packed Full of Pesticides Found in Potomac
Friday, January 19, 2007

 E-MAIL STORY PRINTER FRIENDLY VERSION
CHARLESTON, W.Va.  —  Several chemicals, including one banned in the U.S., have been found in the Potomac River and its tributaries where pollution is suspected of causing some species of male fish to develop female sexual traits, scientists said.

Water samples taken at eight sites in West Virginia and blood plasma from smallmouth bass were analyzed as part of an investigation into the increase of so called "intersex fish" in which males produce immature eggs in their testes, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

A study released Wednesday said pesticides, flame retardants, personal-care products and a banned fungicide were identified in the water or the fish.

• Click here to visit FOXNews.com's Natural Science Center.

Certain chemicals and pesticides are believed to stimulate estrogen production. Hormones produced by an organism's endocrine system govern sexual and reproductive characteristics.

"Endocrine disruptors of this type may contribute to the high percentage of male smallmouth bass found in the Potomac that exhibit female characteristics," the USGS said.

Further studies are planned to determine whether endocrine disruptors interfere with the reproduction and development of aquatic life, the USGS said.

The Environmental Protection Agency has been studying the issue of endocrine disruptors since 1996, but does not issue guidelines to water treatment plants for allowable levels of estrogenic compounds.

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While the article only talks about male fish exhibiting female characteristics, to me it tells me that there is a possibility that something similar could happen to humans as a result of environmental pollution.

[Lieutenant_Q]

Not Probable.  The difference between Fish and Man is a legion.

Environmental pollution is a problem, but only the easily scared would buy into that theory.

[Centurus]

I am not saying that the exact processes and conditions that mutated these fish could do the same to humans.  I am saying that with pollution and toxic contamination in our environment, that it is not that hard to assume that something similar could happen to humans.

The differences between humans and chickens is still quite vast, yet we had the SARS outbreak and the Bird Flu scare.  Granted, these are viruses, but in the grand scheme of the planet, is it really that impossible to consider that what is happening to vairious species of life on Earth, such as the fish in the article, can't happen to us eventually because of the pollution and contamination we are causing to our own environment?

[Lieutenant_Q]

The Influenza outbreak that is coming happens roughly every thirty years because a Virus is perhaps the most adaptable of all organisms on the planet (only Bacteria could claim a better adaptability)  All it will take for the outbreak to reach epidemic proportions is China, Vietnam, or even our own Paranoid government ignoring or covering up the problem until it is too late.  Even with advances in Medicine, an outbreak today, if not addressed immediately could be far worse than the 1919 outbreak.

I never said Impossible, I said Improbable.  Too many people today think the planet and by extension the creatures living on it are stagnant, incapable of adapting.  Be the adaptation from natural causes (Increases in solar radiation, climate change) or from Man-made causes (Pollutants, climate change) we will still adapt.  It is a fantasy world that people live in to think that the world has to remain as it was in the 1800s.  Who are we to say that the world we are moving into is not a better world than the one we are leaving?  Have we really become that arrogant to believe that the world needs us to take care of it?  Yes we've hurt it, yes we should clean up after ourselves, but no we shouldn't become Amish in a vain attempt to stop things that are out of our control.

[Centurus]

All organisms must evolve, social as well as biological.  However, this planet is a very fragile balance, and while progress must be made, we do need to be careful.  A future in where diseases and physical deformities are rampant because of the way we've abused the environment in the here and now is never a better world for anyone or anything.

Pollution isn't out of our control.  We caused it with our own power.  And it is within our power to clean it up.

Evolution is out of our control.  However, the effects the pollutants and chemicals had on those fish in the article was our fault, therefore was within our power to prevent.