A recent study out of China theorizes that exposure to BPA—Bisphenol-A, a plastic-making compound—might be one of the reasons why men suffer from erectile dysfunction. BPA is used in many everyday items like laptops, microwave containers, plastic bottles and the epoxy liner inside almost all food and beverage cans. Some reports say that 90 percent of the population have traces of the compound floating through their system, which makes this new study pretty scary, indeed. 8 Tips For Telling Your Partner A Health Secret

The research, conducted by De-Kun Li, a senior scientist at Kaiser Permanente's research arm out of China, studied groups of men who labored in factories producing large amounts of the compound. Scientists found these men had four times the rate of erectile dysfunction and seven times the amount of ejaculation problems than those who didn't. No Sex? The Rx

These results aside, the obvious questions remain. The factory workers clearly have many times the exposure than the normal population—how do these findings apply to men who don't work in such factories? Could these sexual problems be pinned on other factors? Maybe these workers are more stressed? Perhaps they drink and smoke more than the average man? 

Li is planning a follow-up study that addresses these questions and will compare and contrast different levels of BPA and when they start to have an adverse affect.

Why some otherwise healthy men suffer from frequent erectile dysfunction has always been somewhat of a mystery to health professionals. In the past, doctors have blamed smoking, drinking, lack of sleep, stress and obesity. Smoking, Drinking and Sex (At Work)