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Vincenzo Izzo via Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n
An environmental scientist has warned that plastic pollution is shrinking penises and making men infertile, meaning most of them won\u2019t be able to produce sperm by 2045.<\/strong><\/p>\n In a new book called Count Down, Dr Shanna Swan writes that humanity is facing an \u201cexistential crisis\u201d due to phthalates, a chemical used in the plastic manufacturing process which disrupts the endocrine system.<\/p>\n A growing number of babies are being born with small penises as a result of phthalate syndrome, something that has been observed in rats when they are exposed to the chemical in tests.<\/p>\n Human babies are being exposed to the chemical in the womb, causing a shorter anogenital distance which correlates to penis size.<\/p>\n \u201cPhathalates mimic the hormone oestrogen and thus disrupt the natural production of hormones in the human body, which researchers have linked to interference in sexual development in infants and behaviours in adults,\u201d reports\u00a0Sky News<\/a>.<\/p>\n The chemical, which is used to make plastics more flexible, is being transmitted to humans via toys, food and other items.<\/p>\n Swan cautions that \u201cour modern world is threatening sperm counts, altering male and female reproductive development, and imperilling the future of the human race.\u201d<\/p>\n Throughout her book she cites peer-reviewed studies warning about collapsing male fertility rates, including a 2017 study which found that male sperm counts in western countries had dropped by 50 per cent over the past 40 years.<\/p>\n While birth rates continue to plummet as a result of declining fertility, young men are also being told to\u00a0remain single<\/a>\u00a0while women in the west are socially engineered to believe having children and devoting themselves to motherhood isn\u2019t fulfilling.<\/p>\n From 2007 to 2011 the fertility rate in the U.S. declined 9% in the space of just 4 years.<\/p>\n In 2016, the U.S. fertility rate fell to 59.8 births per 1,000 women, the lowest since records began.<\/p>\n Last year, researchers at the University of Washington\u2019s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation\u00a0warned<\/a>\u00a0that the planet is not prepared for an ongoing global population crash, and that the impact will be \u201cjaw dropping.\u201d<\/p>\n CNN also\u00a0published an article<\/a>\u00a0acknowledging that if sperm was an animal it might be \u201cheading toward extinction in western nations.\u201d<\/p>\n