Re: Hormone Mimics (Endocrine Disruptors): They're in our Food

[Guest guest]

This is scary news for the future--what does it mean for us humans?

Can't be good, whatever it is....I might point out that this article

is 7 years old....wonder what they've found out since then?

Patty

>

> >

> >

> <http://www.mindfully.org/Pesticide/Hormone-Mimics-In-Food.htm>

> >

> http://www.mindfully.org/Pesticide/Hormone-Mimics-In-Food.htm

> >

> >

> > Hormone Mimics (Endocrine Disruptors):

> > They're in Our Food

> > Should We Worry?

> >

> > Consumer Reports Jun98

> >

> > Might chemicals that mimic hormones be harming the

> > human endocrine system?

> > From top to bottom: the pituitary gland; the thyroid

> > and parathyroid glands;

> > the adrenal glands atop the kidneys, with the

> > pancreas in between; and the

> > testes (ovaries, in women). The intestines secrete

> > hormones as well.

> > There has been a scattering of disturbing news

> > reports in the last year or

> > so about abnormalities in animals-- male fish with

> > female sex organs, for

> > instance, and frogs with extra legs. In their search

> > for a cause, scientists

> > are focusing on a class of chemicals called

> > endocrine disrupters. Such

> > chemicals seem to interfere with or mimic the action

> > of hormones and thus

> > may upset the normal growth, behavior, and

> > reproduction of wildlife.

> >

> > If these compounds are harming animals, scientists

> > ask, are they harming

> > people, too? Some researchers have concluded that

> > they might be. In the past

> > two years, dozens of conferences have focused on the

> > effects of endocrine

> > disrupters. The debate will only get louder with the

> > expected release this

> > summer of the National Academy of Sciences'

> > long-awaited report on endocrine

> > disrupters. Whatever the report finds, Congress has

> > already mandated that,

> > by August, the Environmental Protection Agency

> > present recommendations for

> > screening tens of thousands of chemicals for

> > endocrine-disruptive activity

> > and limiting human exposure to those that pose a

> > problem.

> >

> > More than a dozen federal agencies and institutes

> > are planning nearly 400

> > research projects on endocrine disrupters. The

> > chemical industry is funding

> > studies, too. Are endocrine disrupters something to

> > worry about or just

> > another false alarm, like those warnings about a

> > killer asteroid? Here's

> > what scientists know so far, plus our tests of two

> > types of product in which

> > suspected endocrine disrupters are apt to

> > hide--plastic wraps and baby

> > foods.

> >

> > [ See Test of plastic wraps, baby foods below ]

> >

> > The ABCs of EDs

> >

> > Some endocrine disrupters, such as dioxins, PCBs,

> > and various relatives of

> > DDT, are already infamous for the other problems

> > they've created. (See

> > " Prime Suspects, " on page 55.) PCBs and DDT were

> > banned in the U.S. in the

> > 1970s, but dioxins are still being released--

> > they're byproducts of

> > combustion and other processes. All these compounds

> > persist at low levels

> > virtually everywhere--in air, water, and soil. From

> > there, they can enter

> > the food chain, working their way into animals and,

> > eventually, people.

> >

> > They accumulate in fatty tissue, from which they are

> > released very slowly.

> > Other hormone mimics, less well known, are found in

> > some plastics. To

> > understand how these chemicals work their mischief,

> > it helps to know a bit

> > about the endocrine system, which has the same basic

> > function in animals and

> > humans. It's a complex network of glands (the

> > thyroid, the ovaries or

> > testes, and others) and organ tissues (the

> > intestines) that secrete

> > hormones. Hormones act as chemical messengers,

> > traveling through the

> > bloodstream to affect growth, metabolism,

> > reproduction, and other functions

> > elsewhere in the body.

> >

> > The endocrine system is finely tuned through

> > delicate checks and balances.

> > Disrupters can throw off the system by sending the

> > wrong signals or blocking

> > the right signals. The effect is often temporary in

> > adults, whose systems

> > are fully developed and fairly stable. Babies and

> > small children are more

> > vulnerable. And there can be permanent effects on a

> > fetus, whose normal

> > development requires certain amounts of hormones at

> > precise times. Change

> > the amount or the timing, and the individual may

> > suffer problems in

> > behavior, immune function, neurological development,

> > or gender development.

> > As a link between endocrine disrupters and humans is

> > being debated, evidence

> > of a connection between disrupters and animals is

> > mounting.

> >

> > Animal evidence

> >

> > Here are some of the bizarre things that have

> > happened to animals:

> >

> > In a 1981 laboratory study done at the University of

> > California, , male

> > gulls with a feminized reproductive tract emerged

> > from eggs exposed to

> > levels of DDT and other synthetic chemicals similar

> > to levels found in the

> > wild. Similar gender- bending oddities are today

> > being found in terns off

> > Massachusetts and are likely due, researchers say,

> > to as-yet-unidentified

> > pollutants.

> > In 1992, 12 years after the DDT relative dicofol

> > spilled into Florida's Lake

> > Apopka, testosterone levels in the lake's male

> > alligators were just

> > one-quarter to one- half their normal level, and the

> > alligators had shrunken

> > genitals, according to a research team led by Louis

> > Guillette, a University

> > of Florida zoologist. What's more, the lake's female

> > alligators had

> > higher-than-average estrogen levels. " Their eggs

> > were weird looking, " says

> > Guillette, " and they didn't hatch, or the young died

> > within the first two

> > weeks. " Guillette's team has found a new abnormality

> > in alligators from

> > lakes Apopka and Okeechobee--an alteration in

> > thyroid hormones, which are

> > linked to growth and metabolism. Guillette considers

> > the findings important

> > because scientists think of alligators as a

> > " sentinel " species: Their health

> > reflects the health of their ecosystem.

> > In 1995, schoolchildren in a nature- studies class

> > discovered frogs with

> > five legs and other deformities in a pond near

> > , Minn. Because

> > frogs are another sentinel species, scientists

> > around the country took

> > notice. Subsequent searches turned up frogs with

> > extra or missing legs and

> > grossly deformed webbing elsewhere in Minnesota and

> > in several other states.

> > In Anacortes, Wash., a frog had an eye sprouting

> > from behind its front leg.

> > Endocrine-disrupting pesticides may be the

> > culprit--or, as some researchers

> > have suggested, the defects might have resulted from

> > exposure to excessive

> > amounts of retinoids, vitamin A-like chemicals that

> > might have come from a

> > natural source like plants in the lake.

> > Of Mice--and Men?

> >

> > Given the similarities between animal and human

> > endocrine systems, it's

> > tempting to think that what seems to be harming

> > animals may harm people. " We

> > have to bite the bullet, " says Ana Soto, associate

> > professor in cellular

> > biology at the Tufts University School of Medicine.

> > " Whatever we're finding

> > in animals, I think we have to assume that it's very

> > relevant to what is

> > going on in humans. " Others are much more skeptical.

> > " I'm not saying let's

> > dismiss everything, " Texas A & M toxicologist

> > Safe told our reporter.

> > " I'm saying, hey, let's back up. The evidence isn't

> > there. Should we do more

> > work? Sure, but let's not go bananas. "

> >

> > mindfully.org note: Safe is an industry sponsored

> > scientist, and very

> > supportive of industry's point of view.

> >

> > Indeed, there's no proof yet that routine exposure

> > to these chemicals is

> > disrupting the human endocrine system. And

> > conclusive proof may not come.

> > Because people aren't lab rats, researchers may

> > never be able to rule out

> > other possible explanations for any effects they

> > observe. But researchers

> > must keep asking questions. Among them:

> >

> > Do endocrine disrupters affect intelligence?

> > When we spoke to scientists and others who believe

> > chemicals are disrupting

> > the human endocrine system, they often cited the

> > work of ph and

> > son, psychologists at Wayne State University.

> > The sons have been

> > tracking the developmental and intellectual

> > performance of children whose

> > mothers regularly consumed Lake Michigan fish before

> > and during pregnancy.

> > Those fish contain elevated levels of PCBs and other

> > contaminants. In

> > September 1996, the sons reported that the

> > children of fish-eaters

> > showed persistent, measurable intellectual

> > impairment. This finding was

> > highlighted in " Our Stolen Future, " the 1996

> > best-seller that helped kick

> > off public interest in endocrine disruption. But

> > ph son has drawn

> > no conclusion about what particular mechanism might

> > have caused the

> > impairment. In an interview, he called the idea that

> > PCBs disrupted hormone

> > function in the brain before birth " pure

> > speculation. " Early brain

> > development, he said, is " such a complex process,

> > and so many things could

> > go wrong, that we just don't have any basis for

> > concluding that it's

> > endocrine related. "

> >

> > Do endocrine disrupters cause genital birth defects?

> > Quite possibly, say researchers at the national

> > Centers for Disease Control

> > and Prevention. They reported last November that

> > hypospadias, a birth defect

> > in males in which the urinary opening is

> > mislocated--on the underside of the

> > penis or even on the scrotum--doubled between 1968

> > and 1993, and now

> > afflicts nearly 1 of 100 newborn boys nationwide.

> > " That makes it the most

> > common specific type of birth defect among males, "

> > says lead researcher Len

> > ozzi.

> >

> > The defect is thought to result from an inadequate

> > surge of the male hormone

> > testosterone between 9 and 12 weeks after

> > conception. " As you block the

> > fetus's own testosterone, the fetus cannot

> > masculinize itself, " ozzi

> > explains, " and you wind up getting these various

> > states of feminization of

> > the fetus, of which hypospadias is a mild form. "

> > Suspected causes include a

> > fungicide and DDE, a breakdown product of DDT. Also

> > possible, ozzi says,

> > is that doctors have simply become better trained at

> > recognizing and

> > reporting less severe forms of the defect.

> >

> > Do endocrine disrupters cause prostate problems?

> > Frederick vom Saal, of the University of Missouri,

> > Columbia, exposed mouse

> > fetuses to tiny doses of the estrogen-like chemical

> > bisphenol A, found in

> > plastic dental sealants and food- can linings. The

> > mice that emerged had

> > enlarged prostates overburdened with receptors for

> > testosterone as well as

> > testes that produced fewer sperm than usual. Based

> > on these studies, vom

> > Saal hypothesizes that a corresponding overload in

> > men could lead to

> > increased vulnerability to prostate enlargement and

> > perhaps to a decline in

> > sperm count.

> >

> > Do endocrine disrupters lower sperm counts?

> > In 1992, Danish endocrinologist Niels Skakkebaek

> > determined that sperm

> > counts had declined by 50 percent worldwide from

> > 1938 to 1990. He later

> > suggested that PCBs and pesticides, including DDT,

> > may have been the cause.

> > But sperm counts are not down everywhere, said Harry

> > Fisch of Columbia

> > University's College of Physicians and Surgeons in

> > 1996. They varied greatly

> > in different areas, and hadn't declined at all in 25

> > years in the three U.S.

> > cities he analyzed.

> >

> > Yet when Shanna Swan of the California Department of

> > Health Services

> > recently reanalyzed Skakkebaek's data, adjusting for

> > regional variations

> > including the type Fisch had found, she discovered

> > an even steeper global

> > decline. Of all the explanations offered so far,

> > Swan says, endocrine

> > disruption seems the " most coherent and best

> > supported by animal data. " Over

> > the next few years, Swan, with researchers in Europe

> > and Africa, will be

> > analyzing regional differences in semen quality.

> > They will compare the sperm

> > count of fathers-to-be with their level of sex

> > hormones, steroids, and the

> > time it took their wives to conceive, a sensitive

> > marker of fertility. Stay

> > tuned.

> >

> > Do endocrine disrupters increase the risk of breast

> > cancer?

> > In 1995, British investigators reported that some

> > plasticizers, called

> > phthalates, acted as estrogens, enhancing the growth

> > of breast-cancer cells

> > in lab studies. Two years earlier, Wolff, a

> > professor at New York

> > City's Mount Sinai School of Medicine, had studied

> > 58 women and found that

> > the higher the levels of DDE in the blood, the

> > greater a woman's risk of

> > breast cancer.

> >

> > But follow-up studies failed to find such strong

> > correlation. Last year,

> > Wolff teamed up with Harvard researchers to examine

> > DDE and PCB levels in a

> > larger sample of women. This time, she found no

> > evidence that exposure to

> > those chemicals increased the risk of breast cancer.

> > Now a study has come

> > out suggesting an association between PCBs and

> > breast cancer--but only for

> > women who have never lactated. Wolff's reaction: " I

> > don't know. Nature's

> > never, never simple. " In search of better data The

> > conflicting reports may

> > mean that these compounds don't harm people. More

> > plausibly, they may mean

> > that the scientific tools available are too crude to

> > see any harm that's

> > there.

> >

> > Indeed, the several studies that have looked for

> > broad, population-wide

> > effects have a built-in limitation: Even people in

> > remote locations, such as

> > Canada's Baffin Island, harbor traces of PCBs, DDT,

> > and dioxins. There are

> > no unexposed " controls " to help highlight the

> > effects of exposure. But

> > research, especially on possible effects in humans,

> > continues.

> >

> > Soto of Tufts is joining researchers at the

> > University of Granada in Spain

> > to develop precise ways to measure patients' blood

> > and fat for total

> > estrogens, including those originating outside the

> > body, such as from

> > chemical pesticides and plastics. Her team is

> > testing two groups of

> > patients--boys with undescended testes and women

> > with breast cancer--to see

> > whether exposure to environmental estrogens

> > correlates with birth defects or

> > disease. The National Institutes of Health and the

> > Centers for Disease

> > Control and Prevention hope to begin clinical tests

> > that would help them

> > estimate how many Americans harbor traces of

> > chemicals that could mimic

> > hormones.

> >

> > What's more, the Chemical Manufacturers Association

> > is investing some $4

> > million to study endocrine disrupters. " We're taking

> > this very seriously, "

> > says Jon Holtzman, CMA's vice president for

> > communications. " When a

> > plausible theory is proposed and consumers are

> > depending on the safety of

> > the products we produce, we can't walk away. " More

> > work lies ahead--rigorous

> > research on everything from how endocrine disrupters

> > affect individual cells

> > to whether they affect groups of people. Because

> > science progresses by the

> > slow accretion of innumerable facts, a tidy

> > explanation is not likely

> > anytime soon.

> >

> > Recommendations

> >

> > Although research indicates that manmade chemicals

> > may be causing problems

> > in wildlife, at least in localized areas, it's too

> > soon to tell whether

> > hormone mimics pose health risks for people. But

> > should we ignore warning

> > signs and simply hope the news will eventually be

> > good?

> >

> > It makes more sense for government, industry, and

> > individuals to take

> > reasonable steps to limit exposure. The EPA and

> > industry should modify

> > processes that release dioxins, for instance, and

> > the FDA and industry

> > should phase out the use of plasticizers suspected

> > of causing endocrine

> > problems. Such a phase-out is certainly possible:

> > Some plastic wraps already

> > contain no plasticizers. If in the face of all that

> > is still uncertain, you

> > want to reduce your ingestion of the suspect

> > compounds, here are several

> > low-cost strategies that may help: Consider using

> > alternatives to pesticides

> > and insecticides on lawn and pets. Wash fruits and

> > vegetables thoroughly or,

> > better yet, buy organic foods. Limit your ingestion

> > of fatty foods (where

> > the compounds can accumulate). Heed official

> > advisories about fish

> > contamination. And if you reheat food wrapped in

> > plastic, make sure the wrap

> > does not touch the food. The attitude that may serve

> > us all best is one of

> > prudent caution, not blissful ignorance.

> >

> >

> >

> -------------------------------------------------------------------

---------

> > ----

> > Tests of plastic wraps, baby foods

> > Which suspected endocrine disruptors are in our

> > foods, and at what hat

> > levels? One category: certain plasticizers, which

> > add flexibility to plastic

> > food wraps among other products. Plasticizers can

> > migrate from wraps into

> > foods, especially fatty ones like hamburgers and

> > cheese. We tested four

> > endocrine disruptors in a variety of plastic

> > wraps--both the kind you use at

> > home and the kind store-bought foods come wrapped

> > in--and in wrapped food.

> > We tested a few plastic bowls, too. We also tested

> > meat-based baby foods for

> > persistent pollutants like dioxins and PCBs.

> > Although adult foods are known

> > to contain these endocrine disruptors, virtually no

> > data have been published

> > on amounts in baby foods--an odd data gap,

> > considering that exposure during

> > infancy could he important.

> >

> > mindfully.org note: Please note that the chemicals

> > found mimic hormones

> > which are active in our bodies down to

> > concentrations in the

> > parts-per-trillion range while the testing done by

> > Consumer Reports was at

> > parts-per-million.

> > That is a difference of six orders of magnitude or

> > six zeros.

> >

> > 1 million = 1,000,000

> > 1 trillion = 1,000,000,000,000

> > Wraps: Some Mull problem plasticizers

> >

> > Of seven national and store brands Of plastic wrap

> > we analyzed America's

> > Choice, Dow brands Saran Wrap, Duane Reade,

> > Foodtown, Glad Crystal Clear

> > Polyethylene, Reynolds Wrap, and White Rose--only

> > Reynolds Wrap and Saran

> > Wrap contained any of the five plasticizers we

> > looked for.

> >

> > Would a cooked hamburger that was wrapped in plastic

> > Reynolds Wrap or Saran

> > Wrap and reheated in a microwave oven absorb

> > plasticizers? Yes, a little

> > bit, our tests showed, but only where the fat

> > contacted the wrap.

> >

> > It's impossible to say whether a tiny serving of

> > plasticizers is risky. If

> > you want to play it safe, buy one of the wraps we

> > found to be free of

> > suspect plasticizers, or buy any polyethylene wrap.

> > (Polyethylene lacks

> > plasticizers; the product's label should say what

> > it's made of.)

> >

> > In any case, do as some wrap makers recommended and

> > leave a gap between wrap

> > and food when heating. In fact, that's sound advice

> > at any temperature.

> > Studies have indicated that some migration of

> > plasticizers can occur with

> > refrigerated food, too. That's what we found when we

> > analyzed 14 national

> > and local brands of grocery- store and deli cheese

> > wrapped in six types of

> > plastic. The wraps themselves had a wide range of

> > concentrations of two

> > families of problematic plasticizers, adipates and

> > phthalates. In the

> > cheeses, we found:

> >

> > Very heavy migration (50 to 160 parts per million)

> > of the adipate

> > plasticizer DEHA into cheeses in deli cling wrap.

> > People who ate several

> > ounces of this cheese every day could get doses

> > nearly as high as those

> > linked to a host of health problems in lab animals.

> > Moderate migration (I to 4 parts per million of the

> > most common phthalate,

> > DEHP, into some of the shrink-wrapped cheeses and

> > into two waxed cheeses

> > with clear plastic overwrap.

> > little to no migration into individually wrapped

> > slices of American cheese

> > or blocks of cheddar in laminated foil wrap.

> > We found no plasticizers at all in eight new

> > microwavable Rubbermaid and

> > Tupperware bowls.

> > Baby foods: No worse than other foods but ...

> >

> > We tested about 2 dozen meat and poultry baby foods

> > made by Gerber,

> > Beech-Nut, and Heinz for dioxins, PCBs, and related

> > compounds. Like " adult "

> > meats, these baby foods contained substantial traces

> > of the pollutants. The

> > EPA has published what amounts to a limit for dioxin

> > exposure. That

> > guideline is based on the EPA's definition of a

> > negligible cancer risk posed

> > by daily intake over a lifetime, not on any

> > understanding of the potential

> > endocrine-disrupting effects of these chemicals, and

> > it does not account for

> > the likely need for an extra safety margin to

> > protect infants.

> >

> > Nevertheless, a baby who ate one jar--just 2.5

> > ounces--of an average

> > meat-based baby food on a given day would consume

> > around 100 times the EPA's

> > daily limit of dioxins. No brand was significantly

> > more contaminated than

> > another.

> >

> > Does that mean babies shouldn't eat meat baby food?

> >

> > It's not that simple. Other foods babies might eat

> > instead--even fruits and

> > contain dioxins. Breast milk actually has higher

> > levels than meat baby

> > food--and because most babies drink 2 pints or more

> > of milk a day but eat

> > just an ounce or two of processed baby food,

> > mother's milk is overwhelmingly

> > their largest source of these pollutants.

> > mindfully.org note: some studies

> > have found that the mother's breast is still the

> > best source for milk, and

> > that it can reduce the chances of some diseases. In

> > spite of the benefits

> > still outweighing the risk, this is no reason to

> > feel comfortable. Every

> > effort should be made to put pressure on our

> > regulatory agencies to ensure

> > that this vital source of sustenance be made pure as

> > it was once just a few

> > years ago.

> >

> > No one would suggest that babies not be breast-fed

> > --the benefits of breast

> > feeding far outweigh the risk involved. But. that

> > doesn't mean the risk is

> > nil. It's becoming clear that babies--who, with

> > fetuses, are thought to beat

> > the highest risk of endocrine-disrupting

> > effects--can't avoid consuming rath

> > er startlingly high doses of these compounds. The

> > health consequences of

> > that intake, if any, are unknown. Our results

> > suggest why research on

> > endocrine disruptors, and expanded efforts to keep

> > them out of our foods,

> > deserve to be national priorities.

> >

> >

> >

> <http://posting.google.com/post?cmd=post & enc=ISO-8859-

1 & msg=M6Goc.513%24dH3.

> >

> 368%40fe39.usenetserver.com & gs=/groups%3Fdq%3D%26start%3D75%26hl%

3Den%26lr%3

> >

> D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26group%3Dalt.support.breast-implant%26selm%

3DM6Goc.513%2524d

> > H3.368%2540fe39.usenetserver.com>

> >

> >

> > <http://groups.google.com/about.html>

> >

> >

> >

> >

> >

[Guest guest]

I'm afraid the news is not good. Learning disabilities

are on their way up . . . So are sexual abnormalities

.. . .

Of course, we hear the same ole line " No scientific

evidence " every time something comes up . . . Anedotal

evidence shows something is going on . . . but proving

the cause is another matter. The more chemicals we

have in the environment, the more difficult it will be

to prove!

Only more reason to follow a diet along the lines of

" The Maker's Diet " . . . But getting the information

to the young, before they have their children, is a

challenge.

There's a lot more money to be made by selling highly

refined, processed foods than by producing and

distributing organic food!

Rogene

--- glory2glory1401 <glory2glory1401@...> wrote:

> This is scary news for the future--what does it mean

> for us humans?

> Can't be good, whatever it is....I might point out

> that this article

> is 7 years old....wonder what they've found out

> since then?

> Patty

>

>

> >

> > >

> > >

> >

>

<http://www.mindfully.org/Pesticide/Hormone-Mimics-In-Food.htm>

> > >

> >

>

http://www.mindfully.org/Pesticide/Hormone-Mimics-In-Food.htm

> > >

> > >

> > > Hormone Mimics (Endocrine Disruptors):

> > > They're in Our Food

> > > Should We Worry?

> > >

> > > Consumer Reports Jun98

> > >

> > > Might chemicals that mimic hormones be harming

> the

> > > human endocrine system?

> > > From top to bottom: the pituitary gland; the

> thyroid

> > > and parathyroid glands;

> > > the adrenal glands atop the kidneys, with the

> > > pancreas in between; and the

> > > testes (ovaries, in women). The intestines

> secrete

> > > hormones as well.

> > > There has been a scattering of disturbing news

> > > reports in the last year or

> > > so about abnormalities in animals-- male fish

> with

> > > female sex organs, for

> > > instance, and frogs with extra legs. In their

> search

> > > for a cause, scientists

> > > are focusing on a class of chemicals called

> > > endocrine disrupters. Such

> > > chemicals seem to interfere with or mimic the

> action

> > > of hormones and thus

> > > may upset the normal growth, behavior, and

> > > reproduction of wildlife.

> > >

> > > If these compounds are harming animals,

> scientists

> > > ask, are they harming

> > > people, too? Some researchers have concluded

> that

> > > they might be. In the past

> > > two years, dozens of conferences have focused on

> the

> > > effects of endocrine

> > > disrupters. The debate will only get louder with

> the

> > > expected release this

> > > summer of the National Academy of Sciences'

> > > long-awaited report on endocrine

> > > disrupters. Whatever the report finds, Congress

> has

> > > already mandated that,

> > > by August, the Environmental Protection Agency

> > > present recommendations for

> > > screening tens of thousands of chemicals for

> > > endocrine-disruptive activity

> > > and limiting human exposure to those that pose a

> > > problem.

> > >

> > > More than a dozen federal agencies and

> institutes

> > > are planning nearly 400

> > > research projects on endocrine disrupters. The

> > > chemical industry is funding

> > > studies, too. Are endocrine disrupters something

> to

> > > worry about or just

> > > another false alarm, like those warnings about a

> > > killer asteroid? Here's

> > > what scientists know so far, plus our tests of

> two

> > > types of product in which

> > > suspected endocrine disrupters are apt to

> > > hide--plastic wraps and baby

> > > foods.

> > >

> > > [ See Test of plastic wraps, baby foods below ]

> > >

> > > The ABCs of EDs

> > >

> > > Some endocrine disrupters, such as dioxins,

> PCBs,

> > > and various relatives of

> > > DDT, are already infamous for the other problems

> > > they've created. (See

> > > " Prime Suspects, " on page 55.) PCBs and DDT were

> > > banned in the U.S. in the

> > > 1970s, but dioxins are still being released--

> > > they're byproducts of

> > > combustion and other processes. All these

> compounds

> > > persist at low levels

> > > virtually everywhere--in air, water, and soil.

> From

> > > there, they can enter

> > > the food chain, working their way into animals

> and,

> > > eventually, people.

> > >

> > > They accumulate in fatty tissue, from which they

> are

> > > released very slowly.

> > > Other hormone mimics, less well known, are found

> in

> > > some plastics. To

> > > understand how these chemicals work their

> mischief,

> > > it helps to know a bit

> > > about the endocrine system, which has the same

> basic

> > > function in animals and

> > > humans. It's a complex network of glands (the

> > > thyroid, the ovaries or

> > > testes, and others) and organ tissues (the

> > > intestines) that secrete

> > > hormones. Hormones act as chemical messengers,

> > > traveling through the

> > > bloodstream to affect growth, metabolism,

> > > reproduction, and other functions

> > > elsewhere in the body.

> > >

> > > The endocrine system is finely tuned through

> > > delicate checks and balances.

> > > Disrupters can throw off the system by sending

> the

> > > wrong signals or blocking

> > > the right signals. The effect is often temporary

> in

> > > adults, whose systems

> > > are fully developed and fairly stable. Babies

> and

> > > small children are more

> > > vulnerable. And there can be permanent effects

> on a

> > > fetus, whose normal

> > > development requires certain amounts of hormones

> at

> > > precise times. Change

> > > the amount or the timing, and the individual may

> > > suffer problems in

> > > behavior, immune function, neurological

> development,

> > > or gender development.

> > > As a link between endocrine disrupters and

> humans is

> > > being debated, evidence

> > > of a connection between disrupters and animals

> is

> > > mounting.

> > >

> > > Animal evidence

> > >

> > > Here are some of the bizarre things that have

> > > happened to animals:

> > >

> > > In a 1981 laboratory study done at the

> University of

> > > California, , male

> > > gulls with a feminized reproductive tract

> emerged

> > > from eggs exposed to

> > > levels of DDT and other synthetic chemicals

> similar

> > > to levels found in the

> > > wild. Similar gender- bending oddities are today

> > > being found in terns off

> > > Massachusetts and are likely due, researchers

> say,

> > > to as-yet-unidentified

> > > pollutants.

> > > In 1992, 12 years after the DDT relative dicofol

> > > spilled into Florida's Lake

> > > Apopka, testosterone levels in the lake's male

> > > alligators were just

> > > one-quarter to one- half their normal level, and

> the

> > > alligators had shrunken

> > > genitals, according to a research team led by

> Louis

> > > Guillette, a University

> > > of Florida zoologist. What's more, the lake's

> female

> > > alligators had

>

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