Chemicals and pesticides, India and beyond.....

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Of course there is more to all these than just "environmental pollution" Babies in womb exposed to 'gender-bending' chemicalsBy EMILY COOK Last updated at 22:58pm on 10th September 2006 Reader comments (1) Babies are being exposed to "gender-bending" chemical pesticides before they are even born, disturbing new evidence has showed. Tests on blood taken from the placentas of pregnant women revealed up to fifteen different types of pesticide, the research found. Worryingly, the chemicals were found in every single one of the 308 women tested. The

findings will fuel concern about the chemicals, known as hormone disruptors or EDCs - endocrine-disrupting chemicals. High levels of exposure have been linked to reproductive abnormalities - so-called gender-bending - because they upset the hormonal development of the embryo. The effects are already being seen in nature where some species of fish and animals with deformed sex organs have been found. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/healthmain.html?in_article_id=404522 & in_page_id=1774 & in_a_source= `Infertility cases on the rise in Erode' Karthik Madhavan ERODE : This region, known for

its fertile lands, efficient labour force and booming textile industry, has a dark side to it - one that is directly related to the above. The problem is the rise in infertility cases, particularly among men, which the doctors here attribute more to pollution than anything else. "Pollution is one big reason for infertility in this region. Men associated with the dyeing industry are the worst affected, followed by farmers who lavishly use pesticides and fertilizers," says Dr. Nirmala Sadasivam of Maaruthi Medical Centre and Hospital. The doctor says the situation at present is worse than it was about 15 years ago, when she began infertility treatment in this town. "In 1990, I treated 30 infertility cases a day. Today, it is anywhere between 100 and 120." She adds: "Not only that, 60 per cent men then had a sperm count of 100 million an ml, a healthy sign; now, sadly, only 10 per cent have such a count." Dr. S. Dhanabagyam of Sudha Women and Fertility and IVF Centre shares a similar perception. She at present treats about 2,000 patients for fertility-related problems, and 60 per cent are men. She, too, has seen an increase in the number of infertility cases from four to five new cases day in 1998 to around 20 at present. That apart, the condition of patients over the years, too, has worsened. The doctor says, "Then I had patients coming with poor sperm count. Today many of my patients suffer from very negligible count." Her reason for the problem: "Apart from urbanisation and industrialisation and the stressful life associated with it, adverse working conditions in textile industry and pesticide use in excess, affect textile industry workers and farmers respectively, in this region." The doctors blame it on chemicals, oil, heat, air pollutants in spinning mills, etc. in textile industry and phyto

estrogens in pesticides. In the neighbouring Karur and Salem regions too, the problem is as acute as in Erode. In an infertility treatment camp that Dr. Sadasivam conducted in Karur recently, the turnout of 4,000 against the 500 they anticipated, baffled her. http://www.hindu.com/2006/09/11/stories/2006091107210100.htm "Our ideal is not the spirituality that withdraws from life but the conquest of life by the power of the spirit." - Aurobindo.

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