by Linda Schreiber

Created on: January 22, 2009   Last Updated: December 15, 2009

FAKE HORMONES DISRUPT ENDOCRINE SYSTEMS

It is getting harder and harder to separate the men from the boys these days and maybe even getting harder to separate the men from the women. It is not a matter of keeping them apart, but telling them apart. Men and women are becoming more and more alike. Alarmingly, problems with reproduction in humans and animals are increasing from toxins in the environment, some natural and some unnatural, some real hormones and some fake.

Studies show that more and more chemicals called endocrine disrupters are being used that disrupt the endocrine system where hormones are regulated. An endocrine disruptor is an agent that acts like a hormone and disrupts the function of the actual hormone. Hormonal differences that define a male as a male or a female as a female are disrupted.

Many products today contain hormone-disrupting chemicals that interfere with production of the male sex hormone, testosterone. They are used in a variety of common consumer and household products, including children's toys. One would wonder how these chemicals are allowed on the market. According to researchers, the majority of the more than 2,000 chemicals that come onto the market every year do not go through even the simplest tests to determine toxicity. Even when some tests are carried out, they do not assess whether or not a chemical has endocrine interfering properties.

Aside from the hormonal alterations, males are exhibiting decreased sperm counts, delayed puberty, feminization and atrophy of reproductive organs. Effects of endocrine disruptors on females exhibit accelerated puberty, decreased fertility, altered menstrual cycle, and ovarian malfunction. As our ability to reproduce is threatened, our immune systems are also being compromised. The human race is slowly altering itself mostly from pesticides and other chemicals.

The list of hormone disruptors is long and getting longer. There are literally hundreds of compounds such as DDT, PCBs, dioxins, furans and others that are endocrine disruptors. Even though we no longer use DDT, it has entered the food chain and is stored in body fat with all the rest of the other chemicals. When pesticide compounds enter our environment they continue up the food chain. They do not just go away.

Dr. Sarah Janssen, reproductive scientist and physician with NRDC says, "We don't live in laboratories we live in the real world where we are exposed to multiple chemicals from multiple sources every day." The EPA needs

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