The World Health Organization (WHO) and the the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) released this update on the current (2012) understanding of how trace levels of certain bioactive chemicals– Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (EDCs) – can affect sensitive populations, i.e., the young, wildlife, etc. and their developmental health.

More on the issues of concern can be found in the full report at WHO.

A shorter summary, concerning the issues (see below), and titled “The Impact of Endocrine Disruption: A Consensus Statement on the State of the Science”can be found at Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP).

To summarize (excerpted from EHP above),

Close to 800 chemicals are known or suspected to be capable of interfering with hormone receptors, hormone synthesis or hormone conversion.

However, only a small fraction of these chemicals have been investigated in tests capable of identifying overt endocrine effects in intact organisms.

The vast majority of chemicals in current commercial use have not been tested at all.
This lack of data introduces significant uncertainties about the true extent of risks from chemicals that potentially could disrupt the endocrine system.
With the present state of the science of EDCs, we are now poised to have an important impact on disease prevention. The increase in non-communicable diseases in humans and wildlife over the past 40 years indicates an important role of the environment in disease etiology. EDCs are an important component of the environmental influences on disease, along with nutrition and other factors. Thus, reducing exposures to EDCs could have an important impact on actual disease prevention. Prevention of disease is always better than intervening after the disease occurs, both in terms of cost and human suffering: The benefits of early action outweigh the costs.

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UN, WHO panel calls hormone-disrupting chemicals a ‘global threat’

An international team of experts reported  that evidence linking hormone-mimicking chemicals to human health problems has grown stronger over the past decade, becoming a “global threat” that should be addressed.

Much has changed since 2002, when the organizations released a report that called the evidence “weak.” The current panel of 16 scientists from 10 nations find that endocrine-related diseases and disorders are on the rise.

The report summary suggests that there is now evidence for adverse reproductive outcomes, adverse effects on thyroid and brain tissues, and on metabolism.

 

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