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revenge of the girlie soaps

Remember a long time ago when I had to use Leah's fruit-flavored soaps, and I wrote about it here? Well, it turns out that there was yet another hazard I should have been worrying about. Recent news reports suggest that, beyond making me smell like a girl, using girlie cleaning products had the potential to begin turning me into a girl. Really! Science says it's possible. Science!

The story is in today's Boston Globe, which reports that "Lavender and tea tree oils found in some shampoos, soaps, and lotions can temporarily leave boys with enlarged breasts." Eek! True, it was "in rare cases" and it happened to young boys, not to full grown men like myself, but it's still something to think about! "The suspected effect in this study is attributed to some chemical within the oils that the body processes like estrogen, the female hormone that promotes breast growth."

Interestingly, there is nothing in the article suggesting that the oils in question might have some effect on young girls as well. An oversight?

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