Re: EndoDisruptors: Where are they?

[Pete.Roche@uk.greenpeace.org (Pete Roche)]

Also worth hunting down "Male Reproductive Health and Environmental 
Xenoestrogens" by Jorma Toppari et al. Environmental Health Perspectives. Vol 
104, Supplement 4, August 1996.

Appendix A has a particularly useful "Toxicological Summary on Pesticides and 
Other Chemicals Implicated as Environmental Hormones"
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: EndoDisruptors:  Where are they?
Author:  73652.1202@CompuServe.COM at Internet
Date:    22/11/96 02:00


Pretty good overview of the types of products with endocrine disruptors, and 
info on an email list on this subject.  P. Dines
     
--- FORWARD ---
From: INTERNET:doris.cellarius@sfsierra.sierraclub.org 
To: 73652,1202
Date: Thu, Nov 21, 1996, 11:33 AM
Subject: EndoDisruptors:  Where are they?
     
                 WHERE DO WE FIND ENDOCRINE DISRUPTORS, 
               CHEMICALS THAT CAN DISRUPT LIVING SYSTEMS?
     
      A wide range of chemicals, including some in common, often unregulated,
undisclosed use are now associated with affecting the health, reproduction, 
and behavior of animals.  George Lucier, director of the Environmental 
Toxicology Program of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, 
describes the problem: "Although trends in hormonally related diseases have 
not been clearly linked to environmental chemicals, it is probable that 
endocrine disruptors are contributing to human diseases and dysfunction.  The 
question then becomes how much they are contributing."  <<PD NOTE: I think the 
case for the connection between hormone disruptors and health problems can be 
stated more strongly than that - see the book "Our Stolen Future".>>
     
      Fortunately, alternatives to suspect chemicals exist and there are many
ways to reduce exposures until industry and government research can provide 
more certainty as to what is safe.  Industry must share with the public 
information it claims confidential about additives in plastics and detergents 
and inert ingredients in pesticides.  EPA, through the 1996 reauthorization of 
the Safe Drinking Water Act, was directed to address possible endocrine 
disruptors in drinking water.  The White House has convened an interagency task 
force of national experts to improve the national response to the issue. While 
consumer exposures are of concern, we must also consider workplace exposures to 
even larger amounts of these chemicals, and facility releases of chemicals that 
do not biodegrade easily, such as residues in sewage entering a river or sewage 
sludge applied to food crops.
     
      These "endocrine disruptors" include both natural compounds and
synthetic chemicals.  Some, called phytoestrogens, occur naturally in a 
variety of plants.  Living things evolved with them; they are metabolized or 
degraded so that they do not bioaccumulate.  Of current concern are the 
synthetic estrogens produced either through industrial manufacture or as 
byproducts of such processes or burning.  Those we know about have been 
identified by lab tests such as those that measure a chemical's ability to 
speed the growth of cultures of breast cancer cells.  They can cause effects 
at parts per trillion levels, levels at which most chemicals have never been 
tested.  
     
PESTICIDES:  Many pesticides have been found to be estrogenic.  They range 
from 2,4-D and 2,4,-T to tributyl tin, carbaryl, chlordane, DDT, lindane, 
malathion, parathion, aldicarb, DBCP to synthetic pyrethroids.  Exposure can 
occur during application, through consumption of contaminated produce and 
other foods, through contaminated drinking water, or even from house dust in 
agricultural areas.  Production of DDT for use in the U. S. was banned in 
1972.  However, other countries, especially tropical countries like Mexico, 
still use it for mosquito control to combat malaria.  DDT and its metabolites 
bioaccumulate in wildlife and humans can be exposed through the food chain.
     
LIQUID SOAPS, SHAMPOOS, CONDITIONERS, AND HAIR COLORS:  Many industrial and 
consumer products contain alkylphenol ethoxylates (APEs) which break down into 
alkylphenols such as nonylphenol which has been found in sewage and rivers near 
outfalls. One of their main uses is in liquid detergents. In Europe these 
products have been replaced by the more expensive, but much safer, alcohol 
ethoxylates.  Denmark based its phaseout of alkyphenol exthoxylate on research 
done in the United Kingdom which found that its breakdown products, 
alkylphenols, caused male fish to take on female characteristics. Alkylphenols 
do not biodegrade easily and they bioaccumulate, which is why they may cause 
problems when sewage sludge is applied to the land.
     
PLASTICS: Plastics contain additives, such as phthalates, bisphenol-A, and 
nonylphenols, usually present as plasticizers to make them flexible and 
durable.   They can leach out into liquids and foods.  Heating speeds this, 
which is why microwaving foods in plastic is discouraged.  Estrogenic butyl 
benzyl phthalate is found in vinyl floor tiles, adhesives, and synthetic 
leathers.  Its cousin, di-butyl phthalate is present in some food-contact 
papers.  Bisphenol-A is a breakdown product of polycarbonate plastics, used in 
water bottles, baby bottles, and the linings of some food cans.
     
PCBS:  PCBs are a family of toxic industrial chemicals commercialized in 1929 
by Monsanto.  Although their production in the U. S stopped in 1977, world 
production continued.  PCBs are still present in the U. S. in electrical 
equipment and frequently found at toxic waste sites and in contaminated 
sediments.  A recent [study] confirmed that children exposed to low levels of 
PCBs in the womb because of their mother's fish consumption grow up with low 
IQs, poor reading comprehension, difficulty paying attention, and memory 
problems.
     
DIOXINS:  Chlorinated dioxins and dibenzofurans are byproducts of chlorine 
bleaching of paper, the burning of chlorinated hydrocarbons such as 
pentachlorophenol, PCBs, and polyvinyl chloride, the incineration of municipal 
and medical wastes, and natural events such as forest fires and volcanic 
eruptions.  They often contaminate toxic wastes sites, especially where there 
have been fires.  They bioaccumulate in fish and other wildlife and the most 
common human route of exposure is through the food chain.  
     
SPERMICIDES:  Many spermicides contain nonoxynol-9, a nonylphenol that kills 
sperm.
     
PRESERVATIVES:  BHA, butylated hydroxyanisole, is added to foods like 
breakfast cereal, or its packaging, to prevent it from becoming rancid.
     
METALS:  Lead, methyl mercury, and cadmium.  These metals can disrupt the 
endocrine system by causing problems in steroid production.
     
 *************************
The Sierra Club is addressing the problem of chemical disruptors through an 
electronic mail forum for networking and discussion of these matters.  Contact 
Doris Cellarius, chair, Sierra Club Community Health Committee, 360-943-6875 
or (doris.cellarius@sierraclub.org) for more information or documentation of 
the information in this article.