Shocking! Puberty and lavender?

Do you remember when you got your first bra? Certainly not when you were five, right?

Well, read this:
"Hayley... started developing breasts when she was five. A year later... she had her first period. She was dealing with monthly mood swings, stomach cramp, migraines and spots at the same time as learning to read and write. Every month she missed three or four days of school..." 

And what is more, "evidence suggests that Hayley's experience could soon be commonplace."

Before you dismiss all this as nonsense, know that these are quotes from an article I read in Intelligent Life, a magazine from The Economist - which, in case you don't know it, is a very reputable source of information and analyses on world affairs.

Hayley still seems to be an extreme case but they have been conducting studies and "the results... showed that over 15 years the age of breast development in Denmark had dropped a year, from 10.8 years in 1991 to 9.8 years in 2006." Also in China, a study reported the lowest-ever average age for breast development (9.2 years). And boys' voices are breaking earlier - studies in Denmark, the Netherlands and Italy have all come to similar results. 

What are the implications?
- "Children who go into early puberty are prematurely sexualised and too immature to deal with the implications. They are more vulnerable to sexual abuse, inappropriate sexual behaviour, sexually transmitted diseases and teenage pregnancy."
- "Adolescents who go through puberty earlier are involved in more risk-taking behaviour, such as taking drugs, binge drinking and breaking the law."
- For women, there could be health problems: an increased "risk of breast cancer, ovarian cancer and of developing cardiovascular problems."

Why is this happening? Nobody knows for sure. They've looked into obesity, chemicals, absentee fathers ("a girl who lives apart from her father tends to get her period earlier") and now also hormones: "Children are extremely sensitive to hormones before puberty because they are producing so little that small amounts can make a difference." 

What has lavender got to do this any of this? Well, here is another shocking revelation:

"In 2007 a study in the New England Journal of Medicine described how three young boys began growing breasts after using products containing lavender and tea-tree oils. In one case a mother used a healing balm containing lavender oil on her four-year-old son; in another a ten-year-old boy used hair gel containing lavender and tea-tree oil; in the final example a seven-year-old was using lavender soap. Lavender and tea-tree were found to cause hormonal disruptions by mimicking oestrogen."

This article freaked me out. What are your thoughts on this?

1, 2 (Intelligent Life print), 3