Can eating food from a non-stick frying pan make a man’s penis smaller? Evidence showing a connection is piling up.
Non-stick cookware might be the answer to your dishwashing woes, but they contain perfluoroalkyl compounds (PFCs) that appear to be toxic. PFCs are what provides that convenient stain- and char-repellant surface.
PFCs can also be found in water and oil-repellent carpets and other textiles. Because these chemicals are so common, they can now be found in the air and water supply as well.
But we’re beginning to see that convenience comes at a steep price for reproductive health.
A new Italian study from the University of Padua shows that men who are exposed to PFCs in their youths (or whose parents were exposed) had smaller penises.
The researchers found that high levels of PFCs could reduce penis size by 12.5% and thickness by 6.3%. Exposed men also had fewer and less mobile sperm, thereby reducing their fertility.
The study was published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism and looked at 212 males from the Veneto region in northeastern Italy who had been exposed to PFCs in some way. The average age of the subjects was 18.
This region was chosen because it has some of the heaviest environmental PFC pollution in the world after industrial use caused drinking water contamination.
Researchers also studied 171 men from other PFC-heavy regions around the world, including the mid-Ohio valley region of Virginia (where Dupont once secretly dumped contaminants into the water supply), the Dordrecht area in the Netherlands, and the Shandong district in China.
A variety of tests were performed including measurements and sperm counts. According to the researchers:
“We found that increased levels of PFCs in plasma and seminal fluid positively correlate with circulating testosterone and with a reduction of semen quality, testicular volume, penile length, and AGD [anogenital distance].”
That’s bad news for young men and future fathers who are exposed to PFCs.
“This study documents that PFCs have a substantial impact on human health as they interfere with hormonal pathways, potentially leading to male infertility.”
And while the evidence is compelling, the precise mechanisms at work in the human body are still unknown and will require further research if we’re going to find ways to prevent or reduce the damage.
While cutting out your non-stick pans is a good step, it’s not clear how we can avoid the PFCs that have already leached into the environment. Because they are extremely stable chemicals, they are resistant to biodegredation – meaning they will likely outlast human life on Earth.
According to the Environmental Working Group, PFCs “will persist indefinitely even if banned, and will continually redistribute throughout the environment, the food chain, and the human population.”
What’s equally alarming is that the first report on the potential dangers of PFCs in water supplies came out in 1977 and somehow the problem has only gotten worse.
And it’s not just penis size that’s affected. PFCs have been linked to many other health problems like reduced immune function, kidney and testicular cancer, increased cholesterol levels, and obesity.
And while PFCs were banned in Teflon products in 2013, that doesn’t protect people using older cookware or receiving their exposure from water-proof carpets or the environment. Take a look at the everyday objects that might contain PFCs:
And while the risks are well-known, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency continues to approve the use of these compounds and companies continue to exploit loopholes to use them in their products.
But education is key. While we can’t always protect ourselves completely, we can use new science to take precautions to reduce our risk of exposure via the things we can control. And that includes doing some more research on what exactly is in your cookware.
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