Introduction to Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals

CONTENTS
Authors..........................................................................................................iii
Acknowledgments.........................................................................................iii
Foreword....................................................................................................... iv
Executive Summary ....................................................................................... 1
1. Major Health and Science Institutions Highlight Concerns
about EDCs ................................................................................................4
2. Introduction to the Human Endocrine System and EDCs .......................... 7
i. Background on the human endocrine system....................................................... 7
ii. What are EDCs, how are they used, and where are they found .................... 10
3. Impacts of EDCs....................................................................................... 14
i. Historical perspective on EDCs ............................................................................ 14
ii. EDC exposures to the individual, and to future generations............................ 16
iii. EDCs and endocrine disease ............................................................................... 16
Neurological and Behavioral Disorders........................................................... 18
Obesity, Metabolic Dysfunction and Related Disorders................................ 19
Reproductive Disorders.....................................................................................20
Cancer.................................................................................................................. 21
Other Diseases and Disorders...........................................................................22
4. Recent advances in the science of EDCs, and the need for a new
scientific paradigm to evaluate EDC risk...................................................24
i. The need for a paradigm shift to move our scientific understanding of
EDCs forward..........................................................................................................25
ii. Developmental exposure and windows of vulnerability....................................26
iii. Thresholds, low doses, and the concept of no safe dose...................................28
iv. Mixtures..................................................................................................................30
5. Exposure of humans to EDCs....................................................................32
a) Pesticides.................................................................................................................34
i. DDT ..................................................................................................................34
ii. Chlorpyrifos................................................................................................... 40
b) Chemicals in products...........................................................................................44
i. Children’s products – Inorganic lead ...........................................................46
ii. Electronics ......................................................................................................48
c) Food contact materials .........................................................................................52
i. Bisphenol A .....................................................................................................52
Annex I ........................................................................................................ 57
References....................................................................................................60
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