Xenoestrogens: Love Potion Number 9

Xenoestrogens, chemicals that can imitate the female hormones, are one of the key reasons for the importance of activated carbon and other chemical removing technologies on air purifiers. Many consumers are unaware of the threat and continue using dangerous products in their homes. They buy air purifiers with dust-only capabilities.

Here's how to avoid joining them.

Breast cancer has reached epidemic proportions in the U.S. and is increasing globally. Fibroids, cysts, endometrial cancers, menopausal problems and PMS are everywhere increasing.

Men, believing themselves exempt from the above, are actually equally at risk.

A large percentage of American men, (and their women) are dissatisfied with declining male sexual performance. Ads everywhere promise new vigor: Viagra is a $1 billion seller.

There is substantial, growing evidence that the world is literally wading in estrogen imitating "xenoestrogen" chemicals.

For the last 40 years, scientific evidence has accumulated concerning hormone like effects of xenoestrogens in many common chemicals in wildlife and humans.

In studies of animals around the world, scientists are publishing similar findings where xenoestrogens are concentrated: emasculated males, decreasing sperm counts, low testosterone (male hormone), and high levels of estrogens in both sexes. Reproductive failure in animals and humans has reached unprecedented levels.

Birds, panthers, turtles, fish, and people have turned up with weird alterations in sex characteristics.

Perhaps the most publicized of these studies concerned the alligators in Lake Apopka, Florida.

Now, being a male alligator was never much fun, but now it's intolerable. These guys have a bad case of what may be politely termed "shrinking gonads."

Owch. Godzilla attacks Japan, but they poison him with xenoestrogens. The monster reptile just gets real laid back and lays down, crushing a few buildings, but the world is saved by science.

A pesticide, now demonstrated to be a powerful xenoestrogen, was spilled into the Florida lake. Life for reptiles just got even more boring. The 'gator population fell dramatically as nobody could reproduce, and didn't feel like it even if they could. I see a potential growth market for Viagra.

But the alligators had it better than the Smallmouth Bass in the Potomac River, where fishermen found male bass laying eggs.

Invasion of the Body Shrinkers: Xenoestrogens

Xeno is the Greek root word for foreign, and Estrogens are a class of female defining hormones found in most living creatures. Xenoestrogens are outside chemicals that enter the body, attach to receptor ports on cells, and start controlling growth and development. Estrogens are growth stimulants, so the tumors, fibroids and general swelling are the result.

Other names for these foreign chemicals are "estrogen mimics", "hormone imitators", and "endocrine disruptors."

Health effects being discovered in humans are bizarre, and explain some of the unprecedented rapid social and lifestyle changes of recent years.

This condition of hormone imbalance, now affecting nearly everyone, of both sexes, is called "estrogen dominance." While this site is your information source for air quality info, it is not intended as medical advice.

This article will focus on the sources of xenoestrogens and how to reduce exposure. I urge all readers to investigate further. A leader in this research and practical applications is Dr. John R. Lee.

A Xenohormone is Forever

Hormones come in matched pairs, one opposing the other, in balance. Progesterone, the natural opponent of estrogens, has no power to match the synthetic foreign estrogens, and is soon exhausted.

Natural hormones are subtle, needing only miniscule concentrations to function. They are short living, easily metabolized when their job is done. Xenoestrogens are strong and long-lasting.

These chemicals bind permanently to receptor sites, accumulate in fat tissues, and disrupt nearly every biological process. Small daily doses build up, leading to an unbalanced endocrine system. Obesity and adrenal exhaustion (chronic fatigue/"stress") follow.

Xenoestrogens are Everywhere

It is very late in the game to stuff the tech genie back in the bottle. Chemicals used in agriculture and industry cannot just be eliminated. As this is written, Al Gore's global warming film is hitting the big screen. The notion Al champions is that we have just a few years to reverse the tide and avoid disaster.

I believe that the truth is even more inconvenient than presented by the ex-next-president: irreversible changes have already overtaken humanity. On the doomed ship Titanic, there were lifeboats enough for the upper decks only.

Most xenoestrogens are petroleum derivatives, products of a union between big oil and big pharma.

Hormones are fed to livestock raised in unnatural population densities, xenoestrogens are in all conventionally raised meat and dairy products. Estrogenic insecticides are applied directly to the animals, often automatically.

Pesticides are doused on vegetables and fruit many times in a growing season. Many are tested only very briefly before approval. Chemicals banned in one country return on imported products.

PVC plumbing pipes, lawn weed-n-feed, DDT and PCB residues in soil, the list goes on...

Daily Diet of Xenohormones

Then there are the birth control pills and "Hormone Replacement Therapy" (HRT) estrogen prescriptions, courtesy of the lifeboat owning class. These are a perfect setup for future surgery: hysterectomies for 30% of women by age 60.

A high fat, carbohydrate rich diet and resultant weight gain raises estrogen levels. An enzyme in fat cells converts adrenal hormones to estrogens. Caffeine intake from coffee, tea, and soft drinks, is associated with higher estrogen levels. Coffee may contain additional xenos.

Phytoestrogens, from plant based foods like soy, flaxseed, and red clover, may be present in some herbal formulas.

In a scene from the 1967 film, The Graduate, a well meaning uncle whispers a single word of career advice to the newly minted adult male: "plastic." To the baby boom generation this symbolized the cultural conformity we thought we were rejecting. We took the uncle's advice anyway, surrounding ourselves with plastic.

Soft plastics, used for everything from food packaging to baby bottle nipples, contain estrogenic chemicals.

Plastic coatings, used to protect canned goods from heavy metal contamination, contain hormone like molecules. Plastic cookware, Teflon-lined pans, and kitchen storage gizmos, test positive for the xenos.

Plastic wrapped food, heated in a microwave oven, has some of the highest xenoestrogen levels.

Even in hospitals, gasp, plastic is used everywhere. Natural latex rubber has caused its own set of problems, but plastic intravenous drip bags are next.

Tap water, treated to reduce bacteria, can contain numerous toxins, including xenoestrogens. This is widely known, so most people now drink water from plastic bottles. The big five gallon polycarbonate plastic bottles used for water coolers are especially high in bisphenol-A, a xenoestrogen.

Detergents, carpets, furniture, bug killers, and wall paneling outgass traces of xenoestrogens. Hot computers and other electronics outgas hormone mimics. Estrogenic detergent and fabric softener makes laundromats, freshly washed clothing, and dishwasher vapors so sexy. Dry-cleaning chemicals are inhaled and absorbed through the skin. You guessed it: X-rated. Xenoestrogeic chemicals soaking through our skin go directly to the tissues without passing through the liver for detoxification.

Some chemicals become estrogens after bacteria or enzymes in the body process them.

Chlorides, found in bleach, are associated with breast cancer.

Solvents, inhaled or absorbed through the skin from glues, paints, varnishes, cleaning fluids, and automotive leaks, often are estrogenic. Traces of xenoestrogens from solvents used to clean food processing equipment are in every processed food product.

Beauty is More Than Skin-Deep

Personal products are some of the worst xeno-estrogen carriers around. Lotions, sunscreens, shampoos, and makeup, and other cosmetics, may contain Methyl Paraben, a preservative. There was even a special shampoo, marketed to black women, which deliberately contained "sexy" estrogenlike compounds. They got a real surprise after using it on their eight year old daughters!

Spermicidal contraceptives and treated condoms: xenoestrogens, yikes! Wasn't sex already dangerous enough?

Airborne Hormones

While many of the xenoestrogen sources mentioned above are not airborne, several are, and are therefore subject to interdiction by chemical capable air purifiers.

Perfume, hair spray and room "air fresheners" are suspects. Nail polish and the solvents used as removers are loaded.

Indoor insect sprays are often estrogenic. Dishwasher, washer and dryer exhaust, and vapors from cleaning products float on the air.

Car exhaust, in everyone's air, contains xenoestrogens. Car interiors, where we spend 10%-plus of our time, are plastic vapor laden.

Waste incinerators and trash burning release airborne insecticide vapors and partially-burnt plastic. Years ago, I moved away from the urban core, looking for a less polluted "green acres" refuge for my Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. What I found was neighbors burning garbage and packs of barking dogs.

"Ok, so how do I avoid these xenogizmos?"

Reduce Xenoestrogenic Exposures

Reducing xenohormone levels is a long term process. For me, who chased the DDT sprayer as a child, painted everything in sight, and spilled industrial solvents on myself, only symptomatic relief is available. For those with "allergies", asthma, chronic fatigue, or MCS, here is an opportunity. Suggested self protection measures;