A dangerous cocktail is killing off sperm and causing malformed penises and it's not the kind of cocktail you stir and sip. It's also not the kind of cocktail you can avoid.
Researchers, who wanted to understand the rise in low sperm count and malformed male sex organs, are finding that endocrine-disrupting chemicals, which are harmless alone and in small doses, are killing off sperm and messing with development when mixed (in great quantities) in a developing fetus's environment.
The study, conducted on rats in Denmark, tested three chemicals already shown to be harmless individually: the drug flutamide and the pesticides vinclozolin and procymidone.
What they found was that prenatal exposure to a mix of the three chemicals significantly increased the number of baby rats born with malformed external sex organs and also developed some female characteristics.
The researchers say this cocktail effect should be taken into account before declaring individual chemicals as harmless.
