Exposed “A growing number suspect that one way to throw the process askew is by exposure to a family of polyvinyl-chloride plastic softeners called phthalates.” Phthalates are not integral to the chemical structure of plastic, but are additives, making hard plastic pliable and soft. Scientists say that Phthalates are causing new born male infants to be exposed to this chemical which basically slows down their reproductive system and damages it as well. Now banning this ingredient in toys would be the best thing to do but toy companies say it’s been tested and safe. Phthalates are dangerous and should be removed from any product containing it. Phthalates can be found everywhere around your home, shampoo bottles, rain coats, curtains, basically anything that is plastic in your home has this additive. They are found EVERYWHERE! For infants exposure can come early as when they are in the womb, they can get it through the umbilical cord and later from drinking breast milk. It also comes from plastic toys and products which are made especially for the child to bite and teeth on. The World Health Organization says that interactions between children and their toys put them at the center of a potential “risk triangle” One of the most used Phthalates in children’s toys is DEHP, once inhaled it heads straight for the stomach and that’s where it breaks down this affects hormones in your body. DEHP slows down the production of LH a hormone whose main job is to trigger cells in the testes. This can be proven because it has been tested on lab rats by a well-known scientist from North Carolina. He tested DEHP by feeding pregnant lab rats with phthalates and the result was that the female rats gave birth to a high rate of males with incompletely descended testes and deformations in the penis they called this the “Phthalates syndrome.” This included altered growth of the testes, lower sperm count, and lower testosterone levels. To show the research of Phthalates causes was extensive there was another study done by Dr. Shanna swan in which she collects urine samples from 134 different women in three different cities and tested them for phthalate levels. The results showed some correlation between women who had higher phthalate levels in their urine and their male children who, within thirteen months of birth showed “reduced ano-genital distance.” This is a key indicator of testosterone levels. Now Dr. Gray said he had been seeing shorter AGDs in rats which fed on phthalates, and know Dr. Swan was seeing it in infant boys, coincidence? I think not. “The association between male genital development and phthalate exposure is consistent with the phthalate-related syndrome of incomplete virillization that has been that has been reported in pre-natally exposed rodents.” (Shanna.Swan, 45) Here are two well-known doctors proving that Phthalates are interrupting a female boys growth by slowing it down and causing defects on new born infants. Some may argue rodents are completely different with humans but Dr. Swan says “Human studies are consistent with rodent studies. Phthalates are making the ano-genital distance shorter, in a more feminine direction” Now at a heath committee hearing reps from the chemical and toy industries were against Swan and Gray’s findings. They said Phthalates can cause problems at levels to which the rodents have been fed, it’s a matter of how much, when, and how they’ve been exposed to human beings. Dr. James Lamb argues that effects seen in animals from phthalate exposure were from quantities placed in their feed that had no corollary to the exposure of children playing with or sucking on toys. “Phthalate syndrome,” he said, “is a rat syndrome, not a human syndrome.” Another representative of the toy companies says that if they had solid scientific evidence that the toy company would be the first to eliminate phthalates from the toys. Joan