How Chemicals Change Us - EDCs - D. Kristof - NYT

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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/03/opinion/kristof-how-chemicals-change-us.html

How Chemicals Affect Us

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

Scientists are observing with increasing alarm that some very common

hormone-mimicking chemicals can have grotesque effects.

A widely used herbicide acts as a female hormone and feminizes male

animals in the wild. Thus male frogs can have female organs, and some

male fish actually produce eggs. In a Florida lake contaminated by these

chemicals, male alligators have tiny penises.

These days there is also growing evidence linking this class of

chemicals to problems in humans. These include breast cancer,

infertility, low sperm counts, genital deformities, early menstruation

and even diabetes and obesity.

Philip Landrigan, a professor of pediatrics at Mount Sinai School of

Medicine, says that a congenital defect called hypospadias — a

misplacement of the urethra — is now twice as common among newborn boys

as it used to be. He suspects endocrine disruptors, so called because

they can wreak havoc with the endocrine system that governs hormones.

Endocrine disruptors are everywhere. They’re in thermal receipts that

come out of gas pumps and A.T.M.’s. They’re in canned foods, cosmetics,

plastics and food packaging. Test your blood or urine, and you’ll surely

find them there, as well as in human breast milk and in cord blood of

newborn babies....