The effects of pollutants on sexual development has been noted by numerous researchers for at least a decade or two. The only obvious evidence that the effect is more common, or more severe, is the increasing frequency and weight of such reports.

(Note that it's unlikely that better funding for research of this kind is behind the increase in studies, because those who have been in charge of such funding KNOW THAT IT'S ALL A MATTER OF CHOICE WITH NO BIOLOGICAL BASIS.)¹

If pollutants aren't enough to worry you, a recent MSNBC article gives fairly strong arguments (mostly reiterating decades of similar ones) that the consistent/excessive use of soy-based food products can have a similar "feminizing" effect.

Soy products are commonly advocated by herbalists for perimenopausal women, since most such foods contain "estrogen precursors" that supposedly can augment declining estrogen production in women "withdrawing" from levels common when they were "younger." It might be presumed that consumption by males, espectially during adolescent and pre-adolescent development, could diminish the effectiveness of naturally arising androgens responsible for the full development of "maleness."

Some similar sources advocate the use of the natural herb fenugreek (trigonella foenum-graecum) as an aid to lactation in nursing mothers, and it has been warned that excessive exposure can sometimes induce lactation (and/or premature "man boobs") in adolescent or young adult males. (I'm told it's also effective against excessive flatulence.)

¹ Recent Cheney government sponsered research emphatically refutes the contention that the sudden rise in five-legged frogs in the southeastern US has anything to do with "sex hormones."

John