Our increasingly toxic world is not only causing the development of hermaphroditism in polar bears and sex changes in fish, but it is also affecting human reproduction: a decrease in the age of puberty in girls, the development of genital malformations
Our increasingly toxic world is not only leading to the development of hermaphroditism in polar bears and sex changes in fish, but it is also affecting human reproduction: a decrease in the age of puberty in girls, the development of genital malformations, a decline in sperm quality… While the alarming rise in the incidence of childhood cancer in Europe (an increase of 11 per 100,000 per year for the past 30 years) is becoming more widely known, it is less well known that chronic diseases threaten the entire planet: they are a veritable time bomb, particularly in India and China. Today, 63 out of every 100 deaths worldwide are due to chronic diseases (cardiovascular diseases, cancers, respiratory diseases, diabetes, etc.), compared to 37 due to infectious diseases. The revelation of the toxicity of thousands of molecules released since 1945, the recent discovery of endocrine disruptors and their biological and health effects, and the discovery of the significant impact of fetal exposure on offspring (the inheritance of acquired environmental influences, a departure from the certainties of 20th-century genetics) are all elements of an ongoing revolution in biomedical thinking and the need for new global health policies. In 2011, the WHO described this global epidemic of chronic diseases as an "imminent catastrophe." It is time to understand and to act.
