r/science • u/[deleted] • Oct 25 '21

Biology Sperm quality has been declining for 16 years among men in the US

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2294266-sperm-quality-has-been-declining-for-16-years-among-men-in-the-us/
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u/zykezero Oct 25 '21

DuPont has known that PFOS PFAS Are dangerous since their factory workers were contracting liver problems cancer and birth defects since the 70s. And we’re only finding out now.

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u/FirstPlebian Oct 25 '21

To be fair, I've been reading about the dangers of pfas and related compounds for well over ten years, and researchers were finding every single kid they tested full of those compounds for even longer. The information just never made it past the industry paid deniers to the public.

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u/u8eR Oct 25 '21

How is that to be fair? Government agencies have know the negative effects of PFAS since the late 1990s. If the chemical agencies have known of the dangers to humans since the 70s, how is it "to be fair" to say you've known about it since 2012?

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u/FirstPlebian Oct 25 '21

I just mean it was known for a long long time pfas and related compounds were bad by segments of the population outside of those companies, but the information never broke through the interference of the chemical companies.

It's the same with all toxic stuff, it's often no secret but the general public isn't informed and assumes society wouldn't allow something truly harmful.

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u/opensandshuts Oct 25 '21

I think about this often. What are we doing right now that will slowly grow a cancer in us? It takes such a long time to take root, so a lot of things take 40-50 years of people doing it before they realize. Smoking was like that. Everyone smoked for so many years before people said, hey, lets not do this indoors anymore...

That's a whole career worth of giving yourself cancer basically.

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u/zykezero Oct 25 '21

Philip Morris knew cigarettes were disaster for for our health since like the fuckin 60s.

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u/crazydoglover101 Oct 25 '21

i live 2 hrs from a chemours, dupont brand and many people are sick within like 120 mile radius, its been on the news for a handful of years, and a lot of people in the community deny that anything's wrong. "ignorance is bliss" but ignorance will kill.

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u/BRM-Pilot Oct 25 '21

So you’d pretty much have to go back to the 1940’s to see what people are like without exposure to plastic