We all have heard how human beings, we are damaging earth, adding more than 2000 chemicals every year. We get a bit of environment fatigue and helplessness hearing how ice caps are melting, more places are getting extreme weather and we need to reduce plastic.

Animals such as elephants are losing their habitats, polar bear swimming in water as ice berg melts. But hang on, we never talk about one thing – their reproductive health and all these environment whack we humans put on ourselves and the environment.

Well, researchers from Denmark, specially Aarhus university is showing data that links high levels of pollution and reproductive health.

The researchers, tested for a high toxic industrial compound call PCB and link to reproductive health of male polar bears. PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, are highly toxic industrial compounds. These chemicals can build up in the fatty tissues of fish and other animals, and in high concentrations pose serious health risks to people who frequently eat contaminated fish.

If you haven’t read, PCB disrupts your body’s endocrine system, which disrupts your entire body of hormones and sexual health. It is very easy to understand and complicated to explain.

Many of the penis of animals contains a special bone, a real bone, called Baculum. Hedgehogs, cats, dogs, sea lions and even bats have it.

Researchers found endocrine-disrupting chemicals like PCB affects how the Baculum develops. For instance, there is a high likehihood between PCB and bone density of the Baculum bones. Any size reduction in the penis of these species can be less mating, less fertile encounters and weaker penis bone leads to fractures (Yes! Broken penis)

The researchers led by Dr. Christian Sonne, went all the way to do 279 X-rays of Polar bear’s penis bone (the Bacula). The bones were tested for calcium density, and other known endocrine disrupting chemicals.

According to Dr. Christian Soone, more chemicals, less penis bone, more fragile penis. It doesn’t help that these chemicals naturally get more concentrated in arctic environment.

The pollution also meant skinnier bears as bear rely more on their fat storage at the end of winters as climate change forces upon us irregular weather patterns.

Mother Bears are producing milk with higher levels of pollutants in their milk and passing it to their cubs.

It’s this combination of factors that poses the most pressing threat to the bears. “Bears are drawing down further into their fat stores for energy late in the fasting periods,” Dr. Andrew Derocher, scientific advisor to Polar Bears International and a University of Edmonton professor of biology, told me. As thinner bears draw down their fat stores due to above-average fasting, “the remaining pollution is released and circulates at higher levels. This means cubs getting milk from their mothers are getting higher doses of pollution and, for those bears that aren’t lactating, it means they have to deal with higher pollution levels.”