Wired Magazine online just published its top scientific breakthroughs in 2009, and there are two environmental health ones in the list: the sensor that can “smell cancer”, or in other words, can detect exhaled volatile organic compounds that are early biomarkers of potential lung tumors (blogged about earlier) and bisphenol-a. Wired cites a report from the Knight Science Journalism Tracker, which reports on a recently published paper in Human Reproduction about evidence of adverse male reproductive effects in workers exposed to high levels of bisphenol-a (BPA). Male factory workers at a facility in China with BPA exposure have “strikingly high rates of erectile dysfunction and impairment of ejaculation”. The study is on my reading list, but if this proves to be a real adverse effect, maybe it will be the thing that finally stirs some action to address BPA exposure. That or boost stocks in PDE-5 inhibitors.