Our Stolen Future: Are We Threatening Our Fertility, Intelligence, and Survival?-A Scientific Detective Story

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Summary: A fascinating, if frightening read
Review: "Our Stolen Future" seeks to find the commonality in a series of seemingly unrelated abnormalities in animal populations occuring on a world-wide scale. A worthy successor to the environmental classic "Silent Spring", this is a frightening study of the effects of our highly artificial environment.

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Summary: A clear and compelling summary of an important subject.
Review: 'Our Stolen Future' is a great introduction to one of the most important scientific discoveries in our time. Having recently completed a thesis project at university on Endocrine Disruptors, I have reviewed hundreds of papers on the subject. This book is a good clear overview of the scientific literature on EDs. The authors are experts - Theo Colborn is largely responsible for creating the field by bringing together diverse researchers so they could see the big picture of their work. Many of the principle investigators are interviewed and quoted at length on the way chemicals participate in and interfere with delicate hormonal systems in animals (including humans). The major accomplishment of the book is to make an easy-to-follow story out of complex research. Many resources are available to help you assess the reliability of this story, and the best thing to do if you have any doubts is read review articles in scientific journals (which are easier to understand than technical papers). The Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) have a guidebook for health-care professionals on Endocrine Disruptors, and the US EPA has many reports on the matter. Beware of people or websites who try to 'debunk' this book (or the science behind it) by simply declaring it false, flawed or disproven. There is far too much supporting research for so simple a refutation. 'Our Stolen Future' is well written and a compelling read.

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Summary: worthy of further investigation
Review: After hearing about this book in Jan.'99 on public radio,I finally bought it and read it in Feb. It changed my life. I've sent over 30 petitions, with 37 friends' signatures, to food and beverage providers, requesting further info based on the book. I received several letters, most notably from the Coca Cola Company and Campbell's Soup, that they line all or part of their canned items with Bisphenol-A, an estrogen mimic and hormone disruptor that is biologically active and leaches into the food.. They tell me that it's FDA approved. Some responses from providers stated that the amt. of bisphenol-A is too minute to be harmful. I answ. them that acc. to the book, minute amts. are more damaging than lg. quantities..esp. for pregnant women & young children. My mother died in 1977 from experimental estrogen therapy in the mid-70's. They since have added progesterin into the mixture. Thousands of women are currently having Estrogen therapy pushed on them, with no advice to more holistic options,(soy milk, broccoli, exercise). I miss my mother. Please contact me if you need to know what else I've found out. Stay away from all canned beverages to play it safe. Tell everyone you know to do the same. So far, the PET (polyethanol) plastic bottles-(recycle#1) seem to be a safe container, Evian water was professional enough to get me as much info as they had avail. to ease my mind of that. Thank you, Floris RGF.

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Summary: An Absolute Must Read
Review: As a biology major in college, I was fortunate enough to take a class on mammalian reproduction with Dr. Fred vom Saal at the University of Missouri, one of the main researchers in this book. Although this book is nearly 10 years, it is still incredibly telling of the insidious nature of various industries who clearly do not have your safety in mind. The fact that a representive from Dow Chemical actually came down to bribe Dr. vom Saal to not publish his research right away is pretty telling of their goals. The plastics industry makes billions of dollars per year on polycarbonate plastics and its base unit bisphenol A used to make baby bottles, the lining of many aluminum cans, and the popular Nalgene water bottles. When it comes to you and your future children, shouldn't the burden of proof rest on the plastics industry? If you check out www.bisphenol-a.org, which of course lauds the safety and wonders of polycarbonate plastic, you might notice that those and other sites are maintained by the American Plastics Council, among others, which love to site their own studies that say that bisphenol A is just great. Gee, do you think they want bad press about a chemical that has been shown to cause a myriad of reproductive and other physiological problems? Does this sound like the tobacco industry to anyone else? I am fortunate enough now, several years later, to now be a graduate student with Dr. vom Saal as my advisor. After my PhD, I also plan on going to law school for environmental law to finally bring some truth of this to light. As said previously, this should be a required reading of all college students who will have to make some choices about the future of our species.

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Summary: but who's listening?
Review: As a medical doctor I have been very concerned at the doubling of the incidence of breast cancer since I was trained in the 60s. This book confirms one of my beliefs, namely that the majority of the increase is due to environmental factors.
But are they listening? There are now many studies on the web indicting pestcides and plastic breakdown products as causative in BC, yet the money still seems to go into screening, which is of meagre benefit in terms of greater survival, - or in genetic research, when it is known that this is relevant in about 10% of cases.
Doctors are notoriously passive when it comes to political lobbying - or are they really ignoring this information?
The only criticism I have of this book is its title - many take it for a pop. greenie text rather than the fine piece of scientific writing that it is.
I have written to a national radio show to ask them to devote a programme to the subject. There is a good US doco with Theo Colborn and the president of the One in Eight Club - worth seeing - on the issue of getting some action to stop dumping more pollutants of this kind.

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Summary: The Birds & the Bees? The revised edition.
Review: Excellent, It is the story about the birds & the bees and how we might need to revise the story very soon due to artificial estrogen compunds we are creating, wich are confusing our own hormones & reproductive capacities. The proof? All those articles we read in the papers & magazines about animals not reproducing, or dissapearing and did not quite understand. Author brings them together clearly in an easy to understand manner with one big punch. You read it & say, " I remember hearing about that........." Suddenly the Big picture is all tied up and in front of you.It is here & now, and hard to ignore. After you catch your breath and let out a primal scream you must recomend it to anyone you are thinking of reproducing with, or anyone else of your species......

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Summary: Spooky, Interesting and informative , and easy to read
Review: Forgotten Future takes the reader from the fields and lakes where wildlife is having reproduction problems to the labratory where PHD scientists, are struggling with the mystery of synthetic chemicals disrupting hormone messages in developing, (unborn) wildlife and humans. Easy to read, this book unfolds like a mystery novel and draws some very serious conclusions about the toxic world we have created for ourselves by using billiions of tons of synthetic chemicals. We are all un-wittingly participating in a dangerous global experiment with numerous persistant, synthetic chemical toxins which, invisably, disrupt and scramble the body's chemical messages.

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Summary: It's All bunk
Review: The "findings" of this book ahve been discredited and are unsupported. Guidelines prohibit me from posting URL's in support but I encourage anyone who reads this book to do a little detective work of their own.

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Summary: A Chilling Book
Review: The book "Our Stolen Future" by Theo Colborn and John Peterson Myers, two leading environmentalists and Dianne Dumanoski, an environmental journalist, list the compelling effects of chemical contamination revealed from wildlife studies, laboratory experiments and human data. Synthetic chemicals are now linked to reproductive problems: a low sperm count (the male sperm count has plummeted by 50% since 1940 worldwide), infertility, genital and urethra abnormalities, the feminization of males, the masculization of females and hormonally triggered human diseases such as breast and prostrate cancer. Other symptoms include neurological and developmental disorders in children, the abnormal functioning of the thyroid, endocrine and immune system and mental and emotional development.
The danger we face in being exposed to industrial chemical contaminates is not simply disease and death. Something more sinister than straightforward poisoning may be occurring-the actual destruction of our human potential and our ability to reproduce.
Carcinogens are poisons that kill cells or attack DNA, other man-made chemicals target hormones. These synthetic hormones mimic the effects of natural hormones, usually the female hormone estrogen, by altering the natural synthesis of hormones or altering hormone receptor levels. The effects most often appear in the offspring, not the exposed parent. Many mothers are unknowingly passing their chemical legacy on to their babies through their womb and through their breast milk.
Eighty thousand chemicals have been registered with the Environmental Protection Agency in the last 60 years. Twenty new chemicals enter the market a week. Few are properly tested. These chemicals include pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, industrial detergents, and household cleaners. They are found everywhere in our water, air, soil, and food. They may even lurk in unexpected places such as the nonylphenols and the alkylphenols found in plastics and personal care items.
The chemicals may be low in the environment but they resist breakdown and accumulate in the body fat of humans over time. Because of food contamination the concentrations are higher in the bodies of animals up the food chain and in humans. This chronic synthetic hormone exposure is unprecedented in our evolutionary experience. However, most research money for investigating the effects of environment contamination of health goes to cancer studies. Also, because industrial chemicals have become a major sector of the global economy, any evidence linking them to serious human and ecological health problems is met with opposition.
Colburn, Myers and Dumanoski chillingly warn, "There is no clean, uncontaminated place, nor any human being who hasn't acquired a considerable load of persistent hormone-disrupting chemicals ... we are altering the fundamental systems that support life."
What can we do? We need to get political. We have to clean up the toxins in our environment and ourselves to reclaim our future.

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Summary: This book should be mandatory reading
Review: The book is amazing it is pleasant to read and extremely informative. All those who are concerned about the earth, your children, and existence on human beings should read this book. One of the best books I have ever read. This book should be mandatory reading in high school and college.