Plastic

There are two villains here: a family of chemical compounds called phthalates that make PVC plastic soft (as in plastic shower curtains or wash-ff baby books that go in bathtubs) and the industrial chemical bisphenol A (a hard, shiny plastic often used for baby bottles and sippy cups). Although the chemicals involved are different they have a similar effect, mimicking hormones. As they leach out of the plastic they feminize babies and small children. This leads to a variety of problems, including smaller penises as well as planting the seeds for cancer that can develop later in life.

– The Toxic Sandbox (2007) by Libby McDonald; page 67

Click on Plastics, In General to read more about plastics. The information in this section is especially pertinent to pregnant women.

Phthalates

Pregnant women or couples attempting to conceive may want to limit their use of phthalate – containing personal-care products.

– The Toxic Sandbox (2007) by Libby McDonald; page 71

In June 2005 the first-every published study on in utero phthalate exposure linked this exposure to abnormalities in baby boys’ genitalia. Dr. Shanna Swan from the University of Rochester found this connection by measuring phthalate monoester metabolites in the urine of eight-five pregnant women in Losa Angeles, Minneapolis, and Columbia, Missori, and then later examining their sons soon after birth. She and her team found that mothers with the highest level of phthalate metabolites in their urine late in pregnancy had baby boys with smaller penises and scrotums, incomplete descent of the testicles, and a shorter perineum — which scientists call anogenital distance (AGD) — about the same length as on normal females. (Given that normal males have a longer AGD than females, Dr. Swan considers a shortened AGD a marker for demasculinzation.