TED ‘The Toxic Baby’
Many existing chemicals disrupt the functionality of the endocrine system of human beings. The human body is mainly exposed to atrazine through drinking water, which disrupts hormones in the human body. Also, it interferes with the exchange of toxic substances through the human placenta. The frogs’ skin absorbs these chemicals in the same manner. The discussion delves into analyzing Hayes and Penelope Dagessar TED talk on The Toxic Baby.
Atrazine/Letrozole Application Effects
Atrazine orchestrates sex change and behavioral changes in human beings and some hermaphrodites. For example, some Hermaphrodites, when they grow, they ultimately convert to females. Some genes are expressed in females that do not exist in males and were figured out that about 10% of the males exposed to atrazine turn to females (Hayes et al., 2006). Atrazine has been shown to cause disturbances in the endocrine system which eventually causes hormonal imbalances and alters hormonal functioning, causing congenital disabilities in fetuses. Atrazine also activates the aromatase enzyme, which helps convert testosterone, the male hormone, to estrogen, the female hormone.
The accumulation of estrogen in the human body leads to the growth of tumors such as breast cancer and the feminization of males. In males, excess estrogen also decreases the production of sperms from the male reproductive system causing infertility among the affected individuals. On the other hand, letrozole application causes downregulation of the estrogen levels in the body. This is through the inactivation of the aromatase enzyme, thus decreasing the conversion of testosterone to estrogen. Atrazine also causes breast atrophy and abortions among females and prostate disease in male children.
Bisphenol A Effects
The chemical is found in baby bottles that leak into my babies’ fluids, leading to diseases, for example, juvenile diabetes and early puberty among children. The chemical has high estrogen activity, which causes tumor development in children. BPA and perfluorooctanoic acid cross the placenta, causing congenital disabilities and fetal death.
References
Tyrone Hayes & Penelope Dagessar-Chaffer: “The Toxic Baby” 2010. Web.
Hayes, T. B., Case, P., Chui, S., Chung, D., Haeffele, C., Haston, K.,… & Tsui, M. (2006). Pesticide mixtures, endocrine disruption, and amphibian declines: are we underestimating the impact? Environmental health perspectives, 114(Suppl 1), 40-50. Web.