We use what products that contain endocrine-disrupting chemicals?

[Guest guest]

List is from a news article which follows the list. Such a mess we live

amidst.

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Pollutants that interfere with hormones

Chemicals that alter the way hormones work are found in a variety

of common household products, including:

Detergents

Plastics

Vinyl

Epoxy resins and adhesives

Pesticides and herbicides

Cosmetics

Antibacterial soap

Jams and jellies

Soft drinks

Paint

Circuit boards

Coating on water pipes and metal cans

Birth-control pills

Spermicide

Hormone-replacement pills

Egg cartons

Dental fillings

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*Teams study pollutants in Arizona rivers*

lyn Censky

The Arizona Republic

Jan. 21, 2008 12:00 AM

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0121endocrine0109.html

Three teams of Arizona scientists are focusing research on a class of

chemicals in the state water supply that could lead to cancer,

infertility, birth defects or other health problems.

The chemicals, known as endocrine disruptors, mimic certain hormones and

then interrupt or exaggerate chemical reactions, leading to potential

health threats.

Endocrine disruptors are found in pharmaceuticals, soaps, plastics,

fabrics, cosmetics, soft drinks and other common household and

industrial products. They enter the water supply through drains, sewers

and agricultural runoff.

One team of scientists has recently identified higher-than-expected

concentrations of endocrine disruptors in Arizona rivers. The other two

teams are trying to determine how damaging the disruptors can be to

people by studying their effect on wildlife along the rivers.

" Endocrine disruptors are everywhere, " said , a University

of Arizona researcher who studies the effect of the chemicals on native

fish. " These are things that have made it easier for us to survive as a

species, but at the same time, the long-term effect of being exposed to

low doses of these compounds, nobody knows about. "

At present, very little is known about the threat to human health, but

researchers at all three Arizona public universities hope to change that

soon.

ASU studies rivers

Morteza Abbaszadegan has been looking for endocrine disruptors in the

Gila, Verde and Salt rivers for four years.

Not much was known about the chemicals prior to 1996. But then-President

Bill Clinton signed laws requiring the EPA to investigate their

long-term effects, and research increased. Since then, scientific

studies have linked the chemicals to infertility, breast and testicular

cancer and early-onset puberty.

Abbaszadegan is the director of the National Science Foundation's Water

Quality Center at Arizona State University, a research group that

investigates physical, chemical and biological processes affecting water

quality. He wanted to determine if the chemicals were present in Arizona

rivers and to what degree.

Abbaszadegan and his graduate students take water samples, concentrate

the pollutants found in the water and expose human breast-cancer cells

to them to gauge their potency.

If the cancer cells grow significantly faster than usual, endocrine

disruptors are present.

Salt River water samples made the cells grow faster by 60 percent.

Concentrated water from the Central Arizona Project canal and Verde

River made cells grow faster by 69 and 68 percent, respectively. After

water treatment, those numbers dropped to the low 20s.

While those lower numbers are probably safe for tap water, Abbaszadegan

said, the higher percentages in the rivers might imply that the

pollutants are present at levels that could cause cancer and other

health problems.

It's difficult, however, Abbaszadegan said, for scientists to attribute

cancer or other diseases to any one of the more than 15,000 endocrine

disrupting compounds people are exposed to in their daily lives.

Chemical companies still manufacture billions of pounds of these

chemicals each year for use in building materials, cosmetics and

lotions, plastics and common pharmaceuticals. Birth-control pills,

shower curtains, baby bottles, dental fillings and egg cartons contain

these chemicals. Endocrine disruptors also are found in runoff from

pesticides and excrement from farm animals.

The technology doesn't exist to separate and track all those chemicals

and their effects, Abbaszadegan said.

That's perhaps one reason the EPA has not passed any regulations on the

chemicals, although the agency set out a decade ago to determine

potential dangers.

In addition, scientists say there is still much to learn about the

chemicals before testing on humans.

UA studies fish

At UA, studies the environmental impact of endocrine disruptors

in wastewater that flows into the Santa Cruz River in Tucson.

He exposes a native fish, the bony-tailed chub, to different

concentrations of the water over a year, documenting the response.

The treated wastewater contained 15 compounds known to cause endocrine

disruption, mainly stemming from byproducts of soaps and detergents,

flame retardants and plasticizers. None of the compounds was found at

levels higher than 1 microgram per liter of water, or one part per billion.

Nevertheless, the presence of those compounds in small concentrations

was enough to have a significant effect.

In 's study, the Santa Cruz River wastewater feminized male fish.

After a year of living in the wastewater, male fish had the same amount

or more female hormones than healthy female fish.

Meanwhile, the female fish living in the wastewater showed much lower

levels of estrogen compared with females living in clean water.

If the study were extended to include several generations, said

he would expect to see changes in sex organs and mating behavior. He

bases that hypothesis on research elsewhere in the country.

Scientists often blame estrogenic chemicals, which mimic and interfere

with natural estrogen, for causing those reproductive changes.

Artificial estrogen from birth-control pills, some scientists say, may

account for a major portion of estrogenic chemicals in wastewater runoff.

Others, like , disagree, saying there are numerous sources.

NAU studies frogs

In Flagstaff, biologist Propper of Northern Arizona University

studies the effects of estrogenic chemicals called non-ionic surfactants

on frogs. The chemicals improve cleaning power in detergents and make

pesticides stick to plants.

One often found in sunscreens, octylphenol, interfered with gene

expression and sexual development in frogs, even at a

low-parts-per-billion level found in local rivers, Propper said.

" A lot of groups will say the levels in the environment are too low to

have an environmental impact, " she said. " Looking at the effect on

aquatic vertebrates and mammals as surrogates for humans, we are very

concerned. We do know environmental levels to have an impact. "

The EPA does not require municipalities to filter endocrine disruptors

from tap water. Even if it did, Phoenix water-treatment officials say

concentrations of endocrine disruptors in local rivers are so low, they

are nearly impossible to measure.

Consider the concentration of Tagamet, a common heartburn medication

with estrogen-like chemistry, said , superintendent of the

city's pollution-control division. A person would have to drink two

liters of Phoenix wastewater every day for 1,000 years to consume enough

Tagamet to equal that of one 400-milligram pill, he said.

And that's just one chemical. Measuring for thousands of endocrine

disruptors at levels that low would take state-of-the-art equipment and

hundreds of thousands of dollars to implement, said.

Meanwhile, hundreds of products, including baby toys and teething rings,

have been banned in countries around the world for containing endocrine

disruptors. Because of a lack of regulations, these products are still

available in the U.S.

That's worrisome to scientists like NAU's Propper, who said the data

show human health is at risk, even though the risk has not been

quantified or well defined.

" It is a very complicated problem, and people need to understand there

won't be simple solutions, " she said.

But there are some things people can do to cut down on their use of

endocrine disrupting chemicals.

Propper said she eats more organic food and does not use pesticides,

antimicrobial soaps or shampoos containing chemicals called phthalates.

Flushing pills down the toilet is also a no-no, said.

Meanwhile, further studies are planned at all three state universities

as scientists work to determine the dangers these chemicals pose to people.

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