New Study Suggests Phthalates No Threat to Male Fertility
July 14, 2005
Trevor Butterworth
Media not very interested in study showing controversial chemical has no ill effect on semen

Let's call it the Halloween Factor: if research shows even the most tentative risk to health from a chemical, the media will be all over it; but if further research finds that there is, in fact, no risk, then the media will largely ignore it.

Take phthalates, a chemical family that we have long discussed here on STATS and the subject of much activist hysteria. According to a Reuters news story on a new Swedish study:

Dr. Bosse A.G. Jonsson from Lund University Hospital, Sweden, and colleagues looked for associations between phthalate metabolite levels in urine and semen quality and reproductive hormone parameters in 234 young Swedish men entering the military.

There was "no clear pattern of associations" between any of the phthalate metabolites and any of the biomarkers of reproductive function measured.

In fact, exposure to phthalic acid seemed to be associated with improved reproductive function, as measured by several markers."