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Originally Posted by Soriak  I'm pretty sure some mutagens (which are all carcinogen) can do some mutations that will neither kill nor sterilize you... but with regards to food, admittedly teratogens would be the appropriate group  Plenty of those around List of known and suspected teratogens
edit: reproductive toxins go in there somewhere too... man, it's been to long and I knew there was a reason I never went on to study biology or chemistry  |
You're confusing substances that inflict damage during embyonic development with the mutation of the chromosomes carried on gametes, aka sperm and egg.
If your food is contaminated enough to reprogram the chromosomes carried on your sperm, it's just not going to fertilize an egg at all. The system is like a lock and key, and most mutations are deleterious or benign -- they would make defective sperm, or have no effect, or they would cause fertilization to fail. Same would be true if the egg was somehow chromosome damaged -- but those are all formed while the female is in the womb...
So if you somehow wind up with a teratogen-damaged offspring, your pregnant wife probably ate radiated radishes. It wasn't your dietary habits.
