Environment Causing Early Puberty Onset, Some Scientist Think So

Could Environmental Hazards Be the Cause of Early Puberty Onset, Some Scientist Think So

By BeKura Shabazz

How climate change effects the natural global weather patterns causing extreme weather such as hotter summers and warmer winters, melting ice in ice lands, wildfires, hurricanes and flooding can be seen around the globe but have you ever thought about how climate change effects the human body’s time clock when it comes to puberty? Recent studies are showing that children are reaching puberty at younger ages than before and researchers are beginning to see a link between early puberty, mass pollution and sedentary lifestyles which can be a result the effects of climate change.

Ecologist Sandra Steingraber argued in a report by the Breast Cancer Fund “The Falling Age of Puberty in U.S. Girls, “What We Know, Wat We Need to Know” is that access to computers and televisions over the past 30 years has lead to an increasingly sedentary lifestyle in U.S. children. Hotter and more severe weather can cause children to have to resort to being inside instead of outside being active. That inactivity reduces the amount of melatonin in the body which then triggers the body to move into puberty. Sedentary lifestyles have also been linked to childhood obesity which also can result from being inside during extreme weather episodes.

Erin Barnes wrote in Environmental Magazine that “many researchers are studying the relationship between chemical pollutants like PBC’S (polychlorinated biphenyl) and phthalates (commonly used plasticizers) and premature development. Some researchers believe that synthetic chemicals in more developed societies are interfering with human endocrine development which “tricks” kids’ bodies into going through puberty prematurely". Premature puberty in girls have been linked to breast cancer, higher rates of drug abuse, violence, unintended pregnancies, problems in school and mental health issues according to Barnes.

The effects of climate are many and we are still discovering new ways that climate impacts our planet and our day to day lives. It is for this reason coupled with the facts that are already apparent about climate and its fatal impacts that our EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and President Trump should take science seriously. Ignoring the effects of climate and grid-locking states into pushing an agenda that is more about business than human health is not conducive with making America great again, in fact it is right in line with making America some other place that before long none of us will be able to recognize.