Of Penises and Pesticides

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A May 5, 2006 article by Ron Bailey on Reason.com, reprinted in the May 21 Chicago Sun-Times, notes ACSH's skepticism about oft-repeated claims that environmental chemicals are disrupting human sex hormones:

But there is another puzzle -- exposures to many of the most suspect pesticides have been declining for decades. A 2002 study of synthetic chemical residues in human breast milk supported by an activist group, the Natural Resources Defense Council, concluded, "Over the past few decades, levels of the organochlorine pesticides, PCBs, and dioxins have declined in breast milk in countries where these chemicals have been banned or otherwise regulated." A report from the American Council on Science and Health in New York, which receives some industry support, asserts that the residues of many organochlorine pesticides found in human tissues declined by 90%. So if exposure to pesticides is declining, why would male genital abnormalities be going up?