University of Melbourne researchers claim that penis birth defects have doubled in Australia because of plastic.

Associate Professor Andrew Pask and Dr Mark Green have analysed human data and animals exposed to plastic chemicals to see whether they have a genital defect called hypospadia, which is when the opening of the penis is on the underside rather than the tip and causes functionality problems.

The researchers have identified several harmful chemicals that we either consume through food contamination or in our water.

These chemicals, which include BPA and phthalates, parabens used in toothpastes and beauty products and atrazine in herbicide have other harmful effects on genitalia as well as reproduction.

“Exposure to these chemicals, this is the No. 1 reproductive issue for men,” Dr Pask told The Sydney Morning Herald.

“No one likes to talk about this. Often parents don’t even like to tell their kids they had it — it gets surgically repaired but often the surgeries don’t work very well.

“When it’s doubling, it cannot be genetic defects — it takes years for that to spread through a population. So we know it has to be environmental in origin.”

The damage has been done to humans exposed to these chemicals over two generations since the 1950s.

Read more at the damaging done by plastic.