And some organic products which would particularly appeal to the healthconscious, including the Seeds of Change brand, are among the worst offenders. Famous brands such as Heinz, Baxters, Knorr and those carrying celebrity endorsement by the likes of Ainsley Harriott and Loyd Grossman are also under fire.

Heavy salt consumption is associated with high blood pressure, strokes, heart attacks and other causes of premature death. The Government's Food Standards Agency (FSA) has said that by 2010 soup should contain no more than 0.6g of salt per 100g. Yet a survey of 576 varieties by the campaigning group, Consensus Action on Salt and Health (CASH), found 48 per cent are above this threshold.

CASH, the FSA and the Department of Health argue the nation is effectively overdosing on salt. Men are consuming an average of 10.2g per day, while the figure for women is 7.6g. Both are well about the recommended maximum of 6g.

CASH chairman Graham Mac-Gregor, a professor of cardiovascular medicine, said, "Manufacturers need to act in a much more responsible way and work with the interests of their customers in mind and immediately reduce the salt content of their soups, particularly as other companies in the same category of soup have products available well below these levels.

THE STEALTH CONSTITUTION
In an article in the WALL STREET JOURNAL Conservative MEP Geoffrey Van Orden argued that "There is a disconnect between the 27 heads of government who aspire to European unification - supposedly 'a dream of earlier generations' according to the March Berlin Declaration - and their citizens who don't, at least not without having a say over the matter. A recent poll commissioned by Open Europe shows 75% of EU citizens want a referendum on any new constitutional treaty. That rises to over 80% in the UK, France, Ireland and the Czech Republic."

EUROPE'S REGULATIONS FUEL DISENCHANTMENT
The FINANCIAL TIMES reported on our survey which found that EU financial services regulation will cost the UK up to £23 billlion.

EU IN NEW GRAB FOR MORE POWER
THE SUN reported that "The president of the European Commission demanded more powers for Brussels yesterday... Neil O'Brien, of think tank Open Europe,added: "The last thing UK businesses want is unelected EU officials grabbing more powers."

PM SMUGGLES IN NEW EU TREATY
"Campaigners OPEN EUROPE say [the new treaty] could mean Britain having to accept a string of job-destroying laws. The Working Time Directive would see us having to adopt a maximum 48-hour week. Trade ministers have warned this would cost industry £9billion a year and deny millions vital overtime cash. There would be new 'EU rights' for criminals, with European judges being given a say over large parts of our procedural criminal law."

EU WASTES CASH EMPTYING GALAPAGOS BINS
THE EXPRESS reported that the EU is funding dustbin collections in the Galapagos Islands. The article quotes Open Europe arguing that "We're all in favour of giving aid to poor countries but this just seems to be yet another extravagance which is so typical of the way the Brussels bureaucracy spends our money."

NEW EU TREATY 'IS A SHAM'
THE SUN, MAIL AND THE TIMES reported on the leaked Merkel letter on the EU Constitution. Open Europe was quoted saying "This leak shows that we are going to have the same proposals pushed through under a different name, with a few 'presentational changes'. It is incredibly cynical but the voters are not stupid and will not be fooled."

OPEN EUROPE Deputy Chairman Derek Scott spoke on BBC World at One and Westminster Hour and was also quoted in Die Welt. He argued: "the notion that we need to somehow speed up the decision making of the European Union in order that we can get more business through strikes me as completely bizarre. If anything we want a European Union that does less."

The Government last week admitted that the cost simply of administering EU regulations to British business, charities and the voluntary sector in England is £6.3 billion. Trade and Industry Minister Margaret Hodge said the figure did not include the costs of Brussels rules on financial services - which were not available. The total cost of new EU regulations to the UK economy is over £40 billion since 1998 alone, according to the Government's Economic Impact Assessments.

EU INCREASES PR SPENDING ON CONSTITUTION. According to the News of the World reported that the EU is spending £7 million on 245 extra press officers to "sell" the EU Constitution to the public in countries such as Britain. The paper also noted that the Treasury is spending £10 million on a "national change-over plan" to make Britain ready for the euro, even though Gordon Brown has ruled out the possibility of the UK joining the eurozone.)

CAP SUBSIDY FRAUD WORTH MILLIONS OF EUROS REVEALED IN ITALY. The Swedish press has revealed that the EU anti-fraud office OLAF and the Italian authorities have revealed fraud in southern Italy involving the EU's farm subsidies. According to Svenska Dagbladet, the EU paid out several million euros during the period 2001-2004 for buying and selling surpluses of citrus under the EU's Common Agricultural Policy. HOWEVER, NEITHER THE FARMERS, NOR THE FRUIT NOR THE BUYERS ACTUALLY EXISTED.

THE MOD WASTES £8.8 BILLION ON "INTEGRATIONIST" EU DEFENCE PROJECTS.
Conservative MP Ann Winterton argued in a speech in Parliament last week that the Ministry of Defence is wasting substantial resources on military projects following an "integrationist European Union approach", such as the "Euromissile" and Galileo satellite navigation projects. She said: "Pulling together all these costs - but excluding the costs of Eurofighter which are a special case - the excess payments amount to £ 8.8 billion, AND THAT FOR NO GAIN WHATSOEVER.

EU LANDFILL DIRECTIVE TO COST TAXPAYERS £205M A YEAR. In the Sunday Telegraph Christopher Booker explained how EU directives are behind the UK's current bin collection crisis. He pointed out that according to the National Audit Office, Britain's failure to meet the targets laid down in the Landfill Directive will mean that by 2013 UK taxpayers will be paying £205 million a year in fines to Brussels.

Sir Antony Acland, former Head of the Diplomatic Service said: "The importance of this new treaty should not be underestimated. The idea that the Government should adopt such a significant new treaty without a referendum would be a very dangerous development."

Sir John Coles, also a former Head of the Diplomatic Service said: "The proposal to revive the ideas in the European Constitution in the form of a new treaty is clearly very important. If there are to be significant transfers of power to the European level then people should be consulted in a referendum."

A leaked letter from German Chancellor Angela Merkel to the other 26 EU leaders last week highlighted the fact that the new treaty which EU leaders are currently preparing will have much of the same legal substance as the constitutional treaty, while making a few presentational changes and using different terminology to describe the same plans. In a letter to other heads of Government Merkel suggested that: "The consolidated approach of part one of the Constitutional Treaty is preserved with the necessary presentational changes" and suggested a proposal "To use different terminology without changing the legal substance."

Blair's decision to attend the EU summit in June which will establish the timetable and negotiating parameters for the new treaty is causing unrest among Brownites who have begun letting British newspapers know about their concerns.

One "senior civil servant" told the Sunday Telegraph: "The concern is that the outgoing Prime Minister will take constitutional decisions which will bind both his successor and the country for years without obtaining the say-so of his successor, and possibly without even consulting him. There is a worry he believes this should be part of his political legacy and that he will be ac= ting as an individual and not the leader of a government."

Fundamentally, this is about democracy. The Government promised a referendum which is long overdue; now they want to take it away again. When MPs permanently give away powers which we have only lent to them in the first place, the voters should have a say. In the UK, no-one under the age of 50 has had a chance to vote on the direction of the EU. The fact that they might vote "no" is not an acceptable argument against giving them a vote.

It was the first time that the Pope, speaking to reporters aboard the plane taking him on a trip to Brazil, dealt in depth with a controversial topic that has come up in many countries, including the United States, Mexico, and Italy.

The Pope was asked whether he supported Mexican Church leaders threatening to excommunicate leftist parliamentarians who last month voted to legalize abortion in Mexico City ."Yes, this excommunication was not an arbitrary one but is allowed by Canon (church) law which says that the killing of an innocent child is incompatible with receiving communion, which is receiving the body of Christ," he said.

"They (Mexican Church leaders) did nothing new, surprising or arbitrary. They simply announced publicly what is contained in the law of the Church which expresses our appreciation for life and that human individuality, human personality is present from the first moment (of life)".

Under Church law, someone who knowingly does or backs something which the Church considers a grave sin, such as abortion, inflicts what is known as "automatic excommunication" on themselves.The Pope said parliamentarians who vote in favor of abortion have "doubts about the value of life and the beauty of life and even a doubt about the future".

"Selfishness and fear are at the root of (pro-abortion) legislation," he said. "We in the Church have a great struggle to defend life?life is a gift not a threat."The Pope's comments appear to raise the stakes in the debate over whether Catholic politicians can support abortion or gay marriage and still consider themselves proper Catholics.

In recent months, the Vatican has been accused of interference in Italy for telling Catholic lawmakers to oppose a draft law that would grant some rights to unwed and gay couples.

This week, Tony Blair will finally announce his timetable for stepping down as Prime Minister. But at the very point of his departure from British public life, he apparently intends to stamp his image ineradicably upon this country by leaving A BINDING LEGACY THAT WILL ALTER IT FOREVER.

The loss of sovereignty entailed in the original EU constitution, which effectively created a superstate with its own defence and foreign policy, was so great THAT MR BLAIR WAS FORCED TO PROMISE THAT BRITAIN WOULD NOT SIGN UP TO SUCH A MEASURE WITHOUT A REFERENDUM. In France and Germany referendums gave that constitution a big thumbs-down. Now, Frau Merkel claims that her new proposal isn't such a big deal and so a referendum won't be necessary.

IF SO, HIS LAST ACT WOULD BE A BETRAYAL OF THE BRITISH PEOPLE. Such a momentous and cynical step - at the very moment he departs the British stage so he cannot be held accountable for his actions - is a final gesture of contempt for the people who elected him in such good faith. It also demonstrates once again the extent of HIS INSATIABLE AMBITION TO BE SEEN AS A MAJOR PLAYER ON THE WORLD STAGE - even after he steps down.

It appears that, although he stands to make a fortune once the removal vans have left No. 10, Mr Blair will be careful not to be tarnished by such visible commercial exploitation but instead will associate himself with Good Works. This will not be some unsung charitable endeavour. IT IS LIKELY TO BE NOTHING LESS THAN BRINGING PEACE ON EARTH. FOR HE HAS ALWAYS BEEN IN THE BUSINESS OF TRANSFORMING THE WORLD - AND HE BELIEVES THAT HE ALONE IS THE MAN TO DO IT.

Accordingly, it's the divisions that have to go - regardless of the justice of the cause. So everything is negotiable; every conflict is susceptible to a deal. Given the chance, Mr Blair would doubtless force God and the Devil to sit down across a table from each other and hammer out a compromise. But, of course, deals with the Devil inevitably mean selling your soul. And that's the problem with the Blair vision which should terrify all of us. Because the world isn't reducible to a universal personality. There are crucial choices to be made between good and evil.

In his absolute certainty that all problems are resolvable and all they need is someone with a cosmic talent for persuasion to come along and broker the deal - i.e. himself - THE DANGER IS THAT HE MIGHT END UP SENDING DEMOCRACY, JUSTICE, LIBERTY AND LIFE ITSELF DOWN THE PAN.

Mr Blair thinks his greatest achievement is to have created a Northern Ireland power-sharing executive which has brought together in a working relationship hitherto deadly foes who have wrought so much carnage and misery. The price of Sinn Fein's participation is the emasculation of the police and the justice system. TERRORISM HAS NOT BEEN BEATEN BUT REWARDED.

Nowhere is the lethal effect of such Faustian pacts more apparent than in the Middle East. And it is there that Mr Blair is now likely to direct his messianic attention through HIS PROPOSED BLAIR FOUNDATION, WHOSE AIM IS TO PROMOTE LINKS BETWEEN CHRISTIANITY, ISLAM AND JUDAISM.

The mistake made by Mr Blair - and so many others - is to believe that, like Northern Ireland, the Middle East impasse is about the division of a patch of land. Not so. THE PALESTINIAN ARABS WERE OFFERED A STATE OF THEIR OWN IN PALESTINE in 1937, 1948 and 2000. EACH TIME THEY REFUSED AND INSTEAD TRIED TO ERADICATE THE JEWISH PRESENCE THERE.

Mr Blair refuses to accept that there can be no negotiation with those whose agenda is non-negotiable. Last February, he said Britain might be prepared to talk to the 'more sensible elements' in Hamas. My information is that it took two Arabs, the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and King Abdullah of Jordan, to tell him forcibly that there were no sensible elements in Hamas and that talking to it would merely strengthen the terrible threat it posed to the whole region.

The road to hell, it is said, is paved with good intentions. MR BLAIR'S NA'VE AND ARROGANT UTOPIANISM POSES A PROFOUND DANGER which, with his exit from Downing Street to the political afterlife, might merely exchange the British theatre for a platform which allows nemesis to play out on an even wider stage.

Globalization and monetary nationalism are a dangerous combination, a cause of financial crises and geopolitical tension. The world needs to abandon unwanted currencies, replacing them with dollars, euros, and multinational currencies as yet unborn.

In order to globalize safely, countries should abandon monetary nationalism and abolish unwanted currencies, the source of much of today's instability. Monetary nationalism is simply incompatible with globalism. Even such an impeccably credentialed pro-globalization economist as U.S. Federal Reserve Governor Frederic Mishkin has acknowledged that "opening up the financial system to foreign capital flows has led to some disastrous financial crises causing great pain, suffering, and even violence."

"A new gold-based international monetary system surely sounds far-fetched," he concludes. "But so, in 1900 did a monetary system without gold. Modern technology makes a revival of gold money, through private gold banks, possible even without government support."

It is the market that made the dollar into global money and what the market giveth, the market can taketh away. If the world's central bankers balk, and the dollar falls, the market may privatize money on its own. Reckless U.S. fiscal policy is undermining the dollar's position even as the currency's role as a global money is expanding.

The U.S. needs to perpetuate the sound money policies of former Federal Reserve chairmen Paul Volker and Alan Greenspan and return to long-term fiscal discipline. In our current era of large and growing trade imbalances and over $35 TRILLION in GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) accounted federal deficits, these targets appear unlikely.

CATEGORY F-5 ENHANCED TORNADO STRIKES KANSAS 9/5/07 Associated Press

Search and rescue operations continued Tuesday in Greensburg, where emergency responders have struggled to determined if any of its 1,600 residents are missing. The 1.7-mile-wide Category F-5 enhanced tornado, with wind estimated at 205 mph, destroyed about 95 percent of this farming town on Friday. The death toll could have been much worse, but for a 20-minute warning - a rarely issued "tornado emergency" alert - that gave people time to take shelter in basements and storm cellars.

MIDWEST FLOODING COULD NEAR 1993 LEVELS 9/5/07 Associated Press

Five burst levees along the Missouri River sent a deluge of water that submerged the tiny town of Big Lake on Tuesday, as thousands in the region fled their homes amid warnings that the flooding could near the devastation of 1993.Parts of Missouri, Iowa and Kansas received 4 to 8 inches of rain in a 24-hour period, the National Weather Service said.

WILDFIRE BURNS IN MIDDLE OF LOS ANGELES 9/5/07 Associated Press

A wildfire roared across brush-covered hills in the city's sprawling Griffith Park on Tuesday, triggering evacuations of homes and some of the city's most famous landmarks. Authorities called for a mandatory evacuation of homes along the park's southern edge as the fire burned out of control. The National Weather Service said downtown hit 97 degrees, 23 degrees above normal, tying the record for the date.

BIG GEORGIA FIRE HEADS INTO FLORIDA 9/5/07 Associated Press

Crews already battling more than 200 WILDFIRES ACROSS FLORIDA faced a new threat Tuesday as a huge blaze in Georgia moved toward the state line.High wind and tinder-dry conditions made it difficult to battle the Florida blazes, which had covered about 78 square miles, or 50,000 acres. "The weather expected is red-flag conditions for all of Florida," said Jim Harrell, a state Division of Forestry spokesman.

Gov. Charlie Crist declared a STATE OF EMERGENCY FOR FLORIDA last week. IN SOUTH EASTERN GEORGIA, crews were battling two fires less than 10 miles apart, one that had blackened about 107,000 acres, or 167 square miles, and another that had covered 40,000 acres, or 62.5 square miles.

The NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER in MIAMI FL issued a SPECIAL TROPICAL DISTURBANCE STATEMENT on 1115 PM EDT TUE MAY 8 2007

"A NON-TROPICAL LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM CENTERED ABOUT 175 MILES EAST
OF JACKSONVILLE FLORIDA AND ABOUT 160 MILES SOUTH-SOUTHEAST OF
CHARLESTON SOUTH CAROLINA HAS BEEN MOVING SLOWLY WESTWARD AT 5
TO 10 MPH. THE LOW IS PRODUCING GALE-FORCE WINDS NEAR THE COASTS
OF NORTH CAROLINA, SOUTH CAROLINA, GEORGIA AND NORTHEASTERN
FLORIDA. INTERESTS ALONG THE COAST OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES SHOULD
MONITOR PRODUCTS ISSUED BY LOCAL NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FORECAST."
Full Statement at:- www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIADSAAT+shtml/082003.shtml

Proposed Department for Education and Skills guidelines on "elective home education" stress that education is compulsory but schooling is not. Councils should offer support to home educators, and parents must see that their children are suitably educated. But the authorities have no right to enter people's homes or make routine checks on children's progress.

The department has been discussing the issue with several groups representing home educators and with local authorities. T has decided not to propose any changes to current monitoring arrangements or legislation.
It has dropped plans for compulsory registration of home-educated children. Instead it is proposing to issue guidelines for the first time, which point out that IT IS FUNDAMENTAL TO THE ENGLISH SYSTEM THAT THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR EDUCATING CHILDREN RESTS ON THE PARENTS.

The proposed guidance says local authorities now have a duty to try to identify children in danger of missing education. But it says they have "no statutory duties in relation to monitoring the quality of home education on a routine basis". They could intervene only if they have "good reason" - it stresses - to believe parents were not providing a suitable education.

They could ask parents to provide information. Parents "are under no duty to comply" though it would be "sensible" to do so. Consultation on the proposed guidelines runs until the end of July. They have been welcomed by one of the main home educators' groups, Education Otherwise. "Confirmation from DfES that they have no intention of changing the existing legal framework, nor to make registration compulsory, is very good news indeed."

"These are the most positive statements that have been coming out from the DfES," she said. "It really is so heart-warming to families to have their choices recognised in this way."

According to the official, Washington's decision could be interpreted in the region as meaning that the US believed the peace process could not move forward due to the situation in Israel.

However, Dov Weisglass, who served as an adviser to former prime minister Ariel Sharon, told Army Radio on Tuesday morning that Rice's decision to cancel her trip may have been connected to situation in the PA, not necessarily the Israeli government alone.

Weisglass noted that with the current anarchy in the Gaza Strip and West Bank due to the infighting between the Fatah and Hamas factions, it would be difficult to determine which officials to hold talks with.

DUP leader Ian Paisley and Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness took their pledges of office as devolution returned.
Five years of direct rule by London-appointed ministers has ended. Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern witnessed the creation of the new executive.

Mr Paisley said: "Today we are starting upon the road which I believe will take us to lasting peace in our province." He added: "I welcome the pledge we have all taken to that effect today? that is the rock foundation upon which we must build. "From the depths of my heart I can say I believe Northern Ireland has come to a time of peace, a time when hate will no longer rule. "How good it will be to be part of a wonderful healing in this province." Mr McGuinness said he was confident he and the DUP leader could work together.

In an interview for the BBC, Mr Blair was asked about the morality of some of the decisions he made to bring about the restoration of devolution. He said: "There are people who still think that the compromises that were made along the way were unacceptable. "But sometimes politics is about that in order to achieve a better end - and there are always two kinds of people in politics - those who stand aside and commentate and those who get their hands dirty and do."

BERTIE AHERN, IRISH PREMIER said;-This was not a process that promised quick or easy rewards. BUT TONY BLAIR HAS BEEN A TRUE FRIEND OF PEACE, AND A TRUE FRIEND OF IRELAND. And for that we express our heartfelt thanks. I thank him, not so much for the tea, not so much for the castles that I had the pleasure of spending so many times in, but for the true determination that he had, for just sticking with it.

For 10 tough years, he has spent more times dealing with the issues of the island of Ireland than any person every could have asked any other person to do."

These things are fact, not hypothesis," said Wendy Baker, the president of Lloyd's America in an interview on Monday. "You don't have to be a believer in global warming to recognize the climate is changing. The industry has to get ready for the changes that are coming."

In a report on catastrophe trends Lloyd's is disseminating to the insurance industry, a bevy of British climate experts, including Sir David King, chief scientist to the British government, warn of increased flooding in coastal areas and a rapid rise in sea level as ice caps melt in Greenland and Antarctica.

Northern European coastal levels could rise more than a meter (3 feet) in a few decades, particularly if the Gulf Stream currents change, the report says. Floods, which now account for about half of all deaths from natural disasters, could multiply and become more destructive, with annual flood damages in England and Wales reaching 10 times today's level, according to some studies.

At the same time, drought patterns that are already forming in some parts of the world are going to get worse, particularly in southern Africa. Even the lush Amazon may dry up, and with less vegetation, more carbon dioxide will leak into the atmosphere, making the global warming problem even worse, the Lloyd's study says.

"The property casualty industry had an easy year in 2006, when there were no U.S. hurricanes," Baker said. "But the next one may make Katrina look inexpensive." In August, 2005 Hurricane Katrina slammed into the U.S. Gulf Coast, costing the industry more than $38 billion and making it the most destructive storm in terms of property losses ever.

But hurricane modelers say a storm like Katrina hitting the Miami area of Florida or New York could cost as much as $100 billion.

UK researchers tested the effects of a range of artificial colourings on children's behaviour. It is understood the results back previous research linking additives to hyperactivity and poor concentration. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) said it would not issue formal recommendations until the findings were published. But independent experts said parents should avoid foodstuffs containing the additives.

A team at the University of Southampton tested the additives tartraxine (E102), ponceau 4R (E124), sunset yellow (E110), carmoisine (E122), quinoline yellow (E104) and allura red AC (E129) on both three-year olds and eight-to-nine year olds. The amounts used in the study were those that an average child might consume in a day.

A source at the University told food industry magazine the Grocer that their results supported findings first made seven years ago that linked the additives to behavioural problems such as temper tantrums, poor concentration, hyperactivity and allergic reactions.

The FSA's Committee of Toxicity on Chemicals looked at the original research, known as the Isle of Wight study, which had concluded removal of such colourings from childrens' diet would produce "significant changes" in behaviour and not just in those children already showing hyperactive behaviour.

But the Committee decided in 2002 the research was inconclusive. Pru Leith, chair of the School Food Trust said she hoped the findings would be published quickly but the FSA had to follow scientific protocols before making recommendations. We are very keen to promote fresh healthy home cooked food and if you get that sort of food you don't have to worry about additives. "There is a lot of anecdotal evidence from teachers and parents about children behaving badly when they're given sugary food stuffs so in the end I'm sure we will have the corroborating evidence."

Professor Vyvyan Howard, one of the experts on the FSA's Additives and Behaviour Working Group said it was important the findings were published but that consumers could choose not to buy products containing the additives. It is biologically plausible that there could be an effect from these additives. While you are waiting for the results to come out you can choose not to expose your children to these substances.

About 85 per cent of the water flowing down the rivers in southern England is recycled sewage water. And mysteriously, it seems that more and more of the fish that are swimming in those rivers are female.

Not only that, but if you take one of the dwindling number of male fish and relocate it near to where the outfalls dump the treated sewage into the rivers, they often seem to change their gender and turn into females.
Experts have analysed what chemicals in the river water are causing the fish to change sex, and have found ETHINYL ESTRADIOL, a powerful estrogen, or female hormone, WHICH IS THE HORMONAL COMPONENT OF THE FEMALE CONTRACEPTIVE PILL, used by millions of women.

The English fish phenomenon is one of the starkest illustrations of a theory that has sent fertility experts on a scientific clue hunt: that environmental contaminants may lie behind some of the problems affecting men's sperm.

One of those scientists is John Aitken, professor of biological sciences at the University of Newcastle and director of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Biotechnology and Development. "We can identify the problem: the problem is that one in 20 Australian men is infertile, and nobody knows why," Aitken says. "We have one of the most rapidly rising rates of testicular cancer in the world, and nobody knows why; and we have high rates of DNA damage in our spermatozoa, and nobody knows why. The proposal is that these things the testicular cancer, the infertility and the DNA damage may have an environmental component."

Even before any results arrive, the finger of suspicion points at a number of substances. Environmental estrogens are among the suspects, such as the ethinyl estradiol in English rivers. They have a long half-life an advantage in a contraceptive, which needs to persist in the body rather than be immediately filtered out. That also means they persists in the environment.

Other types of estrogens are called phthalate esters, a type of plasticiser used in food-can linings and many household products, and another is nonylphenol, which is chemically related to nonoxynol-9, a common spermicide. Nonylphenol is a component of household and industrial detergents, use of which shot up from about the 1940s.

Other possible substances include acrylamide produced during frying, baking or overcooking and pesticides.
"I'm sure the food that you eat contains DDT; it's been banned for a long time, but it's not banned in the countries that the food is coming from," Aitken says. "And dioxins the list goes on and on."

Aitken says his team is "definitely centre-stage" in the hunt for environmental causes of fertility problems. "Very few other laboratories . . . have the chemistry that we have got to pursue this."