In another litmus test example of our effect on our environment, researcher Cecilia Berg and doctoral candidate Irina Pettersson at the Department of Environmental Toxicology, Uppsala University, studied the effects of hormones on tadpoles. According to the findings, it takes far lower concentrations to make a difference than were previously studied or thought.

Most of the pharmaceuticals we take aren’t fully absorbed by our bodies and thus pass through us, including birth control. You might think the small amount that pass through us isn’t enough to make a difference, but the birth control pill estrogen ethynylestradiol end up in our bodies of water through waste and has been “linked to disturbances in reproduction in wild fish.”

The reproductive systems of frogs develop during the tadpole stage and regulated by their hormones. This study profiled how little of our birth control hormones it actually takes in the water they swim in to sway their development to the female side. If this is affecting our frogs and fish so drastically, imagine what this could mean for us.

» Uppsala University Press Release