An article in a British newspaper offers some clues to the reasons behind certain phenomena of which we've been aware for some time:
A third of male fish in English rivers are changing sex due to 'gender-bending' pollution, alarming research shows. Experts say female hormones from the contraceptive pill and HRT are being washed into our rivers and causing male fish to produce eggs.
The problem - which is country-wide - has raised fears that the pollutants could also be contaminating our drinking water - and even be affecting the fertility of men.
The Environment Agency study looked at the health of more than 1600 roach found in 51 rivers and streams around the country. Overall, a third of the male fish were between sexes. However, in one waterway, near a particularly heavy discharge of treated sewage more than 80 per cent had female characteristics.
Tests showed the males developed female sex organs and were producing eggs. Such fish also produce less sperm and the sperm that is produced is of low quality. Females may also be affected, producing abnormal eggs. Previous studies have shown that cod, trout and flounders are all being feminised.
Researcher Professor Charles Tyler said that the fish are swimming in a soup of oestrogen-like compounds, found in the Pill and in HRT. The hormone, which is also produced naturally by women and found in industrial waste, is released into our waterways after surviving the sewage treatment process.
Human health could also be at risk, with oestrogen from contaminated food and water building up in our bodies. Although there is no conclusive proof, it is thought the hormone, which has similar actions in fish and humans, could be partly to blame for falling sperm counts in men.
British men's sperm counts dropped by almost a third between 1989 and 2002, and one in six couples now have difficulty conceiving. Prof Tyler said: 'There is certainly the potential for it to have an effect in humans - and possibly a marked effect.'
We wonder if there are high levels of estrogen in the water in the United States. If so, it would certainly explain a lot. I leave it to the reader to come up with the particular phenomena it would explain on his/her own.