Date: Wed, 03 Jun 1998 10:30:44 -0500
From: Terry Shistar <tshistar@falcon.cc.ukans.edu>
Subject: Last night's Frontline on endocrine disruptors
If you missed last night's Frontline on endocrine disruptors, you can
read about it on the PBS website at:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/nature/
If some of you are still wondering why the fuss about endocrine
disruptors, and why is it relevant to us in Kansas, look at this quote
from Fred vom Saal, of the University of Missouri (from the PBS
website)":
"But new research indicates the testing model has
been based on erroneous assumptions. There are
now numerous findings that conflict with prior
toxicological studies that concluded that the
concentrations of endocrine disrupting chemicals
in the environment are safe.
"Consider, for example, recent experiments by my
colleagues and I on fetal male mice. During fetal
development, a very small amount of the natural
hormone estradiol is present in mouse serum.
Exposure of male fetuses to an extremely small
supplement of estrogen resulted in an abnormally
enlarged fetal prostate. Furthermore, the effect
was permanent since the adult mice developed
enlarged prostates relative to untreated mice.
"How small a dose does it take to produce
adverse effects? While the normal levels of
estradiol are two tenths of a picogram per milliliter
of serum, the addition of one tenth of a picogram,
a 50 percent increase but still only a tenth of a
trillionth of a gram, caused abnormal prostate
development."
Among the chemicals known to disrupt the endocrine system are some of
our most troublesome pollutants: atrazine, PCBs, mercury,
dioxins, 2,4-D, alachlor, chlordane, beta-HCH, many more pesticides,
many phenols, and many more chemicals.
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