If you have been applying lawn care chemicals or pesticides recently, a Florida scientist is concerned about your manhood.

A renowned U.S. scientist who has documented fertility and sex changes — including decreasing penis size — due to environmental contamination says he wouldn’t apply pesticides on his own lawn.

Louis Guillette, a zoologist at the University of Florida, is detailing his concern for genitalia in lectures at the University of Western Ontario in Canada. The object of his studies has been the Florida alligator population.

He found abnormalities in sex organs, dramatic differences in egg-hatching rates and hormone levels. Penis size of the animals from the polluted lake was smaller than animals from the less-polluted lake. "This is important because it is not just an alligator story. It is not just a lake story. We know there has been a dramatic increase in penile and genital abnormalities in baby boys," Guillette said.

Naturally, young Floridians are at risk.

A followup study by another scientist involving healthy couples with 5,000 healthy babies also found reduced penis size with higher contamination levels. "Are (their penises) so small they are actually having problems? We don’t know. These are baby boys," he said. But rodent studies have indicated more difficulty with fertility and other aspects later on, he said.

Obviously more research will be required in the field of shrinking gator, rat, and child members, but the zoologist would be wise to pool resources with his Canadian flying-squirrel-sex-studying counterpart to maximize efficiency. After all, it’s for the children!

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