A MUMBAIWIRE.IN SPECIAL REPORT
A report by watchdog NGO Environment Health News of USA may have starling news for Indian consumers. Many agricultural pesticides which are found in many bottled waters in India – though in very minor quantities – including some previously untested and commonly found in vegetables and fruits, disrupt male hormones, according to new tests conducted by British scientists.
These pesticides when consumed even in very trace or minor quantities over a long period of time can contribute to low sperm count, infertility and affect the male reproductive health leading to impotence. Says Naveen Luthra, CEO, Mulshi Springs and an expert on bottled water in India, “Everyday thousands of Indians consume bottled water from unknown and unheard of brands snug in the belief that they are drinking ‘clean and pure water’. This misconception and false ‘trust’ is slowly but surely ‘killing’ the reproductive systems of the Indian male populace.”
According to Luthra, whose company Mulshi Springs – one of India’s few internationally certified natural spring waters leads and supports research on the pesticide content in Indian drinking water , “The government should make periodic, routine and surprise checking mandatory if it really cares about the reproductive health of the nation. The amount of pesticides Indian consumers imbibe over a period of time is surprising and this is a bigger problem in cities rather than villages.”
The USA-based NGO researchers in their report strongly recommended that all pesticides in use today be screened to check if they block testosterone, which is critical to male reproductive health. Thirty out of 37 pesticides tested by the University of London altered male hormones, including 16 that had no known hormonal activity until now. Most are fungicides applied to fruit and vegetable crops, including strawberries, lettuce, oranges, bananas, etc.
“This study indicates that, not surprisingly, there are many other endocrine disruptors that we have not yet identified or know very little about,” said Emily Barrett, a University of Rochester scientist who was not involved in the study and helped prepare the report.
The findings come as the EPA faces opposition from the pesticide industry after expanding its Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program, which requires testing of about 200 chemicals found in food and drinking water to see if they interfere with estrogen, androgens or thyroid hormones.
Many agricultural pesticides – including some previously untested and commonly found in food – disrupt male hormones, according to new tests conducted by British scientists.
The scientists strongly recommended that all pesticides in use today be screened to check if they block testosterone and other androgens, the hormones critical to a healthy reproductive system for men and boys.
“Our results indicate that systematic testing for anti-androgenic activity of currently used pesticides is urgently required,” wrote the scientists from University of London’s Centre for Toxicology, led by Professor Andreas Kortenkamp. Coincidently most of the pesticides and coloring agents mentioned in the EPA report are widely used in India and are largely unregulated, opines Naveen Luthra, adding that most bottled waters and even soft drinks contain pesticides in India.
Thirty out of 37 widely used pesticides tested by the group blocked or mimicked male hormones. Sixteen of the 30 had no known hormonal activity until now, while there was some previous evidence for the other 14, according to the report, published last Thursday in the scientific journal Environmental Health Perspectives. Most of the newly discovered hormone disruptors are fungicides applied to fruit and vegetable crops, including strawberries, oranges, sweet limes and even bananas. Traces of the chemicals remain in foods and enter the human digestive system.
The British researchers screened the chemicals using in-vitro assays, which use human cells to check whether the pesticides activate or inhibit hormone receptors in cells that turn genes on and off. They are a widely accepted lab technique. Scientists, however, are uncertain what actually happens in the human body at the concentrations of chemicals that people encounter in fruits and vegetables.
Some research has linked pesticides to abnormal genitals in baby boys, such as cryptorchidism and hypospadias, and decreased sperm counts in men. Male fertility is thought to be declining in many countries and India tops the list. Testicular cancer is also increasing, says the report. Some scientists have dubbed this compilation of male disorders “testicular dysgenesis syndrome,” and suggested that hormone-disrupting environmental contaminants play a role.
Fetuses and infants may be particularly at risk when exposed in the womb or through breast milk because hormones control masculinization of the reproductive tract. R. Thomas Zoeller, chair of the biology department at the University of Massachusetts.
“It is telling us that the pesticides most prevalent in the human population have effects on the androgen receptor,” said Zoeller, who directs the university’s Laboratory of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Endocrinology.
“Considering all the evidence that human male reproduction is exhibiting troubling secular trends (sperm count and quality, hypospadias, cryptorchidism, testis cancer), this is highly troubling,” he said.
The researchers noted “a clear disparity” between today’s most widely used pesticides and the current knowledge of their risks, “with the majority of the published literature focused on pesticides that are no longer registered for use in developed countries.”
Of the tested compounds, the most potent in terms of blocking androgens was the insecticide fenitrothion, an organophosphate insecticide used on orchard fruits, grains, rice, vegetables and other crops.
Others with hormonal activity include fludioxonil, fenhexamid, dimethomorph and imazalil, which are all fungicides. Fungicides are often applied close to harvest, so they are frequently found as residue in food. Some are new compounds which have been used for only a few years.
Fungicides “are typically applied as mixtures in order to increase effectiveness and prevent development of resistant strains and therefore, human exposure to mixtures of these in vitro anti-androgens may be considerable,” wrote Kortenkamp and the other study authors, Frances Orton, Erika Rosivatz and Martin Scholze.
Of the tested compounds, the most potent in terms of blocking androgens was the insecticide fenitrothion, an organophosphate insecticide used on orchard fruits, grains, rice, vegetables and other crops. For six of the pesticides that showed hormonal activity for the first time, the authors said they “strongly recommend” the next round of testing, using lab animals. “Due to estimated anti-androgenic potency, current use, estimated exposure, and lack of previous data, we strongly recommend that dimethomorph, fludioxonil, fenhexamid, imazalil, ortho-phenylphenol and pirimiphos-methyl be tested for anti-androgenic effects in vivo.”
“We at Mulshi Springs are committed to provide fine drinking water, spring water and bottled water with absolutely zero pesticide content. Mulshi Springs is the only water available in India which is completely and 100 per cent pesticide free. Unfortunately, the same is not true for thousands of other brands, some of them even well-known and respectable brands,” explains Luthra.
(Adapted from the EPA report and EH News by Flynn Remedios)
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