I just finished reading a really important and somewhat frightening essay about how early development in young girls (those that develop as young as 7 or 8, or as in one case, as young as 14 months) is linked to environmental pollution and plastics.

An excerpt:

When I began looking into environmental causes, however, a clearer picture began forming. Dr. Sandra Steingraber, author of the Breast Cancer Fund’s comprehensive 2007 report “The Falling Age of Puberty in U.S. Girls” considers early puberty to be “an ecological disorder” resulting from a complex web of environmental influences. Pollutants, plastics and chemicals may be the hidden causes of early puberty in girls, and Black girls seem to be more vulnerable.

I did not develop early, but I had two friends that did, and they were harassed mercilessly by boys and men alike. But sexual harassment should not be the only reason to be concerned about the link of early puberty to pollution/plastics–that would imply that if we just keep our girls childlike, sexual harassment and violence would stop happening. We need to fix the entire mess we’ve created, environmental pollution, sexual violence, lack of health care resources, food safety–everything.

via/Color Lines