Forbes Writer: Tax women on BC for polluting environment.

[Glass Cowcatcher]

What do you know. A cause that might actually get the right behind new taxes and environmentalism.

The basic problem is that the hormones in the pill itself, the hormones which produce the desired contraceptive effect, then end up in the sewage system as part of the normal function of kidneys and bladders in human beings. Those hormones are then not captured by the standard sewage treatments and end up being released into the fresh water of the area. Where they are believed to cause sex changes in fish.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/0 ... 68483.html

[doggie]

First tax the farmers with their hormones and antibiotics they use on their animals. that's 1000's of times worse then what humans excrete.

[Glass Cowcatcher]

Definitely and there is no real way to prove that the animals are mutating specifically due to birth control.

[Maude]

Okay, but then you'd have to do the same for every other medication. They may not all contain hormones, but they're all not environmentally safe, which is why you're supposed to return your unused meds to the pharmacy instead of flushing them. I'm all for the environment, but this is just another right-wing ploy against women's rights.

ETA: I actually think using hormones and antibiotics on animals raised for consumption should be illegal, but taxing them might be one better.

[CanadianHippie]

Okay, but then you'd have to do the same for every other medication. They may not all contain hormones, but they're all not environmentally safe, which is why you're supposed to return your unused meds to the pharmacy instead of flushing them. I'm all for the environment, but this is just another right-wing ploy against women's rights.

ETA: I actually think using hormones and antibiotics on animals raised for consumption should be illegal, but taxing them might be one better.

You'd have to do the same for all female pee. A certain amount of hormones make it into the urine, that's why pregnancy tests work.

[Minerva]

Said Forbes writer can kiss my ass. I take birth control and I cause way less pollution than the average person. Let alone, you know, the average corporation...in case they're looking to tax something that significantly contributes to pollution, as opposed to just grabbing at misogynist straws.

[alba]

You'd have to do the same for all female pee. A certain amount of hormones make it into the urine, that's why pregnancy tests work.

You'd have to tax extra for pregnant women because of HCG. And then when the kid's born tax even more because of the environmental impact of overpopulation.

Yeah, it's just an attempt to blame women's rights for all the ills of the world.

[Beammeup]

They also will need to tax Grandma on her hormone replacement therapy. Same problem.

[Aeryn406]

This is so scary! Remember that short story on the Wordpress blog a few months ago ("ILU-486")? Environmental damage was the reason that the states outlawed contraceptives and the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency - for non-US residents) would track who was using hormonal BC through the sewer system. There's even a part in the story that describes the women having to go, camping-style, into bottles & jars and then throw them out to avoid tripping the sensors!

ETA: I'm now a Frumper Lover! :dance:

[BelieveinScience]

First tax the farmers with their hormones and antibiotics they use on their animals. that's 1000's of times worse then what humans excrete.

So then basically only the dairy industry and beef industry would be taxed. Using hormones on chickens and pork are illegal. Ever notice how on a package of "natural" chicken it says "hormone free" with an asterik next to it? on the back of the package (Usually sometimes its the front) it says "using hormones in broilers and swine is prohibited."

I don't see the issue with antibiotics, though. When an animal is sick its cruel to just leave it sick. When you get the animal there are 0 traces of the antibiotic in the animal. That's what withdrawal periods are for.

Coincidentally, beef companies aren't even on the radar as far as the hormones that their livestock excrete even though they use hormones to increase growth. The three main producers of hormones excretions are first Dairy industry, swine, then birth control from humans. Notice how swine is listed even though its illegal to use hormones? Knowing what I know about the swine and dairy industry I'd be more inclined to say the hormones that they excrete would be more related to the reproduction/lactating process since swine birth more than any other livestock species in a year and the dairy industry milks the ever loving daylights out of the dairy cows.

The Dairy industry is by far the worse which is why I maintain my dairy is evil and only eat dairy once a week if that.

That said, this whole thing seems like a ploy against the evil birth control. Not to mention that its still up for debate why the fish are feminizing.

[No Fun My Babe]

This is so scary! Remember that short story on the Wordpress blog a few months ago ("ILU-486")? Environmental damage was the reason that the states outlawed contraceptives and the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency - for non-US residents) would track who was using hormonal BC through the sewer system. There's even a part in the story that describes the women having to go, camping-style, into bottles & jars and then throw them out to avoid tripping the sensors!

ETA: I'm now a Frumper Lover! :dance:

That was an awesome story. I love a good dystopian work, but somehow it doesn't seem so dystopian with all the shit going on now, does it?

This whole thing is a load of bull, of course. Just another way to shame and blame women. There are so many things that actually pollute the environment that almost everything would have to be taxed.

They'd have to tax the fuck out of me. I'm a walking pharmacy.

[deelaem]

What do you know. A cause that might actually get the right behind new taxes and environmentalism.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/0 ... 68483.html

So writers for Forbes magazine are now allowed to get away with screamingly obvious fragmented sentences in their essays? Sorry, but that alone makes it very hard to take anything this person says seriously.

[Cran]

I don't see the issue with antibiotics, though. When an animal is sick its cruel to just leave it sick. When you get the animal there are 0 traces of the antibiotic in the animal. That's what withdrawal periods are for.

It's not about withholding medication from sick animals, but about the rampant overuse of antibiotics in an attempt to compensate for overpopulated stables and other negative effects associated with masses of animals in one spot.

Resistance to antibiotics is not that uncommon, you know...

[Funky Chicken]

Also, antibiotics given regularly to cattle increase the feed-conversion ratio (it was the same with poultry but it became illegal probably due to selecting for drug-resistant strains of salmonella although I may be wrong about that).

[BelieveinScience]

It's not about withholding medication from sick animals, but about the rampant overuse of antibiotics in an attempt to compensate for overpopulated stables and other negative effects associated with masses of animals in one spot.

Resistance to antibiotics is not that uncommon, you know...

Antibiotic resistance causes are largely up for debate, though.

[BelieveinScience]

Also, antibiotics given regularly to cattle increase the feed-conversion ratio (it was the same with poultry but it became illegal probably due to selecting for drug-resistant strains of salmonella although I may be wrong about that).

You're talking about the ionophore implants, I think. Are you thinking of the things that are put into the ears of the cattle? I really don't know much about them but I think they are the only sub-therapeutic antibiotics cattle are sometimes given depending on the farming operation. Cattle in the beef industry are givien vaccines 7ways, 9 ways, etc.. depending on the operation.

Now I know chickens are generally given a lot of sub therapeutic antibiotics in their feed like things to prevent coccidiosis(probably spelled that wrong). But I don't know enough about the poultry industry to comment if they ever used things like ionophores for feed gain.

But that said the cause of antibiotic resistance is up for debate. Some scientists believe its just a naturally occurring evolutionary thing since they are finding antibiotic resistant genes in animals that have never been given antibiotics, and whose sires/dams have never been given antibiotics, and all the way through that lineage. While some scientists think its sole cause is the use of antibiotics in the animal industry. And some think its related to how humans use the antibiotics (not finishing the antibiotic dosage like the RX says). I just don't think its right to be pointing blame at antibiotic resistance causes when its a much debated thing at this time.

Just like it's not right the article is saying the BC pills are the cause of the fish sexes changing when there is no definitive proof of it. Yes, the BC pill hormones have been found in the waters where fish are becoming feminized but so is regular estrogen, testosterone, progesterone etc... And there havent been any studies done (at least none that I can find) that have taken fish and tried to turn them into girl fish by using these hormone substances.

[Artemis]

You'd have to do the same for all female pee. A certain amount of hormones make it into the urine, that's why pregnancy tests work.

In fact, just tax women. For the crime of being female, why not?

[No Fun My Babe]

In fact, just tax women. For the crime of being female, why not?

00000000000 It seems that is their ultimate goal.

Riffle. Goddamn, I cannot type today.

[doggie]

Antibiotic resistance causes are largely up for debate, though.

There are farmers who have become very resistant to antibiotic's after raising their animals on them.

[shesinsane]

Time to start taxing those undergoing radiation treatments for cancer for cleaning up their toxic waste. :roll:

[Wolfie]

[

The Dairy industry is by far the worse which is why I maintain my dairy is evil and only eat dairy once a week if that.

Why not read packages and research the brands you buy? Nearly all the brands I see in the store anymore are hormone free, and I can buy organic and make sure that they're hormone and antibiotic free.

And have you been around livestock much? Dairy cows actually willingly come in to be milked, because otherwise their udders hurt. Just like a human mom who is breastfeeding and has had to be away from their baby for a while.

[BelieveinScience]

Why not read packages and research the brands you buy? Nearly all the brands I see in the store anymore are hormone free, and I can buy organic and make sure that they're hormone and antibiotic free.

And have you been around livestock much? Dairy cows actually willingly come in to be milked, because otherwise their udders hurt. Just like a human mom who is breastfeeding and has had to be away from their baby for a while.

I don't agree with what they do in the dairy industry the hormone thing is the least of it and really in the long run doesn't bother me. I have been around livestock and I've talked to people in the dairy industry. I don't agree with ripping a baby cow away from its mom. It's cruel for both the mom and the baby. That's my strong belief, I've seen mama livestock animals lose their babies and have seen how they acted, no one can convince me otherwise that they don't feel the same pain a human does when losing a baby. So ripping a baby off its mom teh moment it's born (which is what the majority people in the dairy industry do) and then feeding it only twice a day(again industry standard when beef calves get ondemand feeding) is cruel.

Not to mention, the calves are deprived of nutrients when they are being fed which essentially gives them anemia and causes them to have that meat color you get when you buy veal in the store. Most dairy calves end up as veal.

I'm a meat eater but I strongly maintain that animals needed to be treated humanely before you send them to slaughter but what the dairy industry does isn't what I would classify as humane in any sense of the world. So researching brands wouldn't be relevant to me since my main issue is the treatment of the animals.

[B5SnowDog]

What do you know. A cause that might actually get the right behind new taxes and environmentalism.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/0 ... 68483.html

I think the Forbes writer should've read this: New report: Don't blame the pill for estrogen in drinking water: "Contrary to popular belief, birth control pills account for less than 1 percent of the estrogens found in the nation's drinking water supplies. [snip] Their report suggests that most of the sex hormone...enters drinking water supplies from other sources. [snip] Knowing that sewage treatment plants remove virtually all of the main estrogen — 17 alpha-ethinylestradiol (EE2) — in oral contraceptives, the scientists decided to pin down the main sources of estrogens in water supplies. [snip] Some research cited in the report suggests that animal manure accounts for 90 percent of estrogens in the environment."

That doesn't even address all the chemicals that mimic estrogen's affects.

[Elle]

First tax the farmers with their hormones and antibiotics they use on their animals. that's 1000's of times worse then what humans excrete.

THANK YOU. In China they're having a major problem with precocious puberty in girls who're consuming hormone-filled animal products, and it's been directly connected. The fucking US government doesn't think we even have the right to know if our ORGANIC foods are genetically modified now.

Thank you, Monsanto, now burn the fuck to the ground.

[nolongerIFBx]

THANK YOU. In China they're having a major problem with precocious puberty in girls who're consuming hormone-filled animal products, and it's been directly connected. The fucking US government doesn't think we even have the right to know if our ORGANIC foods are genetically modified now.

Thank you, Monsanto, now burn the fuck to the ground.

I love you, Elle!