Urgent public debate is needed over a European proposal to regulate environmental levels of the active ingredient in birth-control pills, say Richard Owen and Susan Jobling.
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References
Jobling, S. & Owen, R. Ethinyl oestradiol: bitter pill for the precautionary principle in: Late Lessons from Early Warnings: Science, Precaution, Innovation (European Environment Agency, in the press).
Kidd, K. A. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 104, 8897–8901 (2007).
Gross-Sorokin, M. Y., Roast, S. D. & Brighty, G.C. Environ. Health Perspect. 114(S1), 147–151 (2006).
European Commission. Communication from the Commission on the Precautionary Principle COM (2000)1 (2000).
Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution Report no. 21: Setting Environmental Standards (RCEP, 1998).
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Owen, R., Jobling, S. The hidden costs of flexible fertility. Nature 485, 441 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/485441a
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/485441a
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Richard Deasington
What happened to the principle of "polluter pays"? There are reputed to be abot 3.5 million women in the UK using the contraceptive pill – about 1/3rd of women aged 16 – 49. So – if the cost estimate is GBP 30 billion that equates to about GBP 8571 for each current user!
There are other methods of contraception with smaller environmental costs and it is evidently possible to use them – c.f. Japan where the pill usage rate is ~1% with a fertility rate 1.21 children born / woman, compared to a fertility rate of 1.91 in the UK...
Iwona Grad
Aren`t fertility control patches less dangerous for the environment?
I guess the "polluter pays" principle in practice would probably increase the quantity of teenage mothers on social support system – also quite heavy for the society.