There is no end to the tricks that endocrine disruptors can play on
our bodies: increasing production of certain hormones; decreasing
production of others; imitating hormones; turning one hormone into
another; interfering with hormone signaling; telling cells to die
prematurely; competing with essential nutrients; binding to essential
hormones; accumulating in organs that produce hormones.
Here are 12 of the worst hormone disrupters, how they do their dirty deeds, and some tips on how to avoid them.
BPA
Some may say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but do
you really want a chemical used in plastics imitating the sex hormone
estrogen in your body? No! Unfortunately, this synthetic hormone can
trick the body into thinking it’s the real thing – and the results
aren’t pretty. BPA has been linked to everything from breast and others
cancers to reproductive problems, obesity, early puberty and heart
disease, and according to government tests, 93 percent of Americans have
BPA in their bodies!
How to avoid it? Go fresh instead of canned – many
food cans are lined with BPA – or research which companies don’t use BPA
or similar chemicals in their products. Say no to receipts, since
thermal paper is often coated with BPA. And avoid plastics marked with a
“PC,” for polycarbonate, or recycling label #7. Not all of these
plastics contain BPA, but many do – and it’s better safe than sorry when
it comes to keeping synthetic hormones out of your body. For more tips,
check out:
www.ewg.org/bpa/
Dioxin
Dioxins are multi-taskers… but not in a good way! They form during
many industrial processes when chlorine or bromine are burned in the
presence of carbon and oxygen. Dioxins can disrupt the delicate ways
that both male and female sex hormone signaling occurs in the body. This
is a bad thing! Here’s why: Recent research has shown that exposure to
low levels of dioxin in the womb and early in life can both permanently
affect sperm quality and lower the sperm count in men during their prime
reproductive years. But that’s not all! Dioxins are very long-lived,
build up both in the body and in the food chain, are powerful
carcinogens and can also affect the immune and reproductive systems.
How to avoid it? That’s pretty difficult, since the
ongoing industrial release of dioxin has meant that the American food
supply is widely contaminated. Products including meat, fish, milk, eggs
and butter are most likely to be contaminated, but you can cut down on
your exposure by eating fewer animal products.
Atrazine
What happens when you introduce highly toxic chemicals into nature
and turn your back? For one thing, feminization of male frogs. That’s
right, researchers have found that exposure to even low levels of the
herbicide atrazine can turn male frogs into females that produce
completely viable eggs. Atrazine is widely used on the majority of corn
crops in the United States, and consequently it’s a pervasive drinking
water contaminant. Atrazine has been linked to breast tumors, delayed
puberty and prostate inflammation in animals, and some research has
linked it to prostate cancer in people.
How to avoid it? Buy organic produce and get a
drinking water filter certified to remove atrazine. For help finding a
suitable filter, check out EWG’s buying guide:
www.ewg.org/report/ewgs-water-filter-buying-guide/
Phthalates
Did you know that a specific signal programs cells in our bodies to
die? It’s totally normal and healthy for 50 billion cells in your body
to die every day! But studies have shown that chemicals called
phthalates can trigger what’s known as “death-inducing signaling” in
testicular cells, making them die earlier than they should. Yep, that’s
cell death – in your man parts. If that’s not enough, studies have
linked phthalates to hormone changes, lower sperm count, less mobile
sperm, birth defects in the male reproductive system, obesity, diabetes
and thyroid irregularities.
How to avoid it? A good place to start is to avoid
plastic food containers, children’s toys (some phthalates are already
banned in kid’s products), and plastic wrap made from PVC, which has the
recycling label #3. Some personal care products also contain
phthalates, so read the labels and avoid products that simply list added
“fragrance,” since this catch-all term sometimes means hidden
phthalates. Find phthalate-free personal care products with EWG’s Skin
Deep Database:
www.ewg.org/skindeep/
Perchlorate
Who needs food tainted with rocket fuel?! That’s right, perchlorate, a
component in rocket fuel, contaminates much of our produce and milk,
according to EWG and government test data. When perchlorate gets into
your body it competes with the nutrient iodine, which the thyroid gland
needs to make thyroid hormones. Basically, this means that if you ingest
too much of it you can end up altering your thyroid hormone balance.
This is important because it’s these hormones that regulate metabolism
in adults and are critical for proper brain and organ development in
infants and young children.
How to avoid it? You can reduce perchlorate in your drinking water by installing a reverse osmosis filter. (You can get help finding one at:
www.ewg.org/report/ewgs-water-filter-buying-guide)
As for food, it’s pretty much impossible to avoid perchlorate, but you
can reduce its potential effects on you by making sure you are getting
enough iodine in your diet. Eating iodized salt is one good way.
Fire retardants
What do breast milk and polar bears have in common? In 1999, some
Swedish scientists studying women’s breast milk discovered something
totally unexpected: The milk contained an endocrine-disrupting chemical
found in fire retardants, and the levels had been doubling every five
years since 1972! These incredibly persistent chemicals, known as
polybrominated diphenyl ethers or PBDEs, have since been found to
contaminate the bodies of people and wildlife around the globe – even
polar bears. These chemicals can imitate thyroid hormones in our bodies
and disrupt their activity. That can lead to lower IQ, among other
significant health effects. While several kinds of PBDEs have now been
phased out, this doesn’t mean that toxic fire retardants have gone away.
PBDEs are incredibly persistent, so they’re going to be contaminating
people and wildlife for decades to come.
How to avoid it? It’s virtually impossible, but
passing better toxic chemical laws that require chemicals to be tested
before they go on the market would help reduce our exposure. A few
things that can you can do in the meantime include: use a vacuum cleaner
with a HEPA filter, which can cut down on toxic-laden house dust; avoid
reupholstering foam furniture; take care when replacing old carpet (the
padding underneath may contain PBDEs). Find more tips at:
www.ewg.org/pbdefree/
Lead
You may or may not like heavy metal music, but lead is one heavy
metal you want to avoid. It’s well known that lead is toxic, especially
to children. Lead harms almost every organ system in the body and has
been linked to a staggering array of health effects, including permanent
brain damage, lowered IQ, hearing loss, miscarriage, premature birth,
increased blood pressure, kidney damage and nervous system problems. But
few people realize that one other way that lead may affect your body is
by disrupting your hormones. In animals, lead has been found to lower
sex hormone levels. Research has also shown that lead can disrupt the
hormone signaling that regulates the body’s major stress system (called
the HPA axis). You probably have more stress in your life than you want,
so the last thing you need is something making it harder for your body
to deal with it – especially when this stress system is implicated in
high blood pressure, diabetes, anxiety and depression.
How to avoid it? Keep your home clean and well
maintained. Crumbling old paint is a major source of lead exposure, so
get rid of it carefully. A good water filter can also reduce your
exposure to lead in drinking water. (Check out
www.ewg.org/report/ewgs-water-filter-buying-guide/
for help finding a filter.) And if you need another reason to eat
better, studies have also shown that children with healthy diets absorb
less lead.
Arsenic
Arsenic isn’t just for murder mysteries anymore. In fact, this toxin
is lurking in your food and drinking water. If you eat enough of it,
arsenic will kill you outright. In smaller amounts, arsenic can cause
skin, bladder and lung cancer. Basically, bad news. Less well known:
Arsenic messes with your hormones! Specifically, it can interfere with
normal hormone functioning in the glucocorticoid system that regulates
how our bodies process sugars and carbohydrates. What does that mean for
you? Well, disrupting the glucocorticoid system has been linked to
weight gain/loss, protein wasting, immunosuppression, insulin resistance
(which can lead to diabetes), osteoporosis, growth retardation and high
blood pressure.
How to avoid it? Reduce your exposure by using a
water filter that lowers arsenic levels. For help finding a good water
filter, check out EWG’s buying guide:
www.ewg.org/report/ewgs-water-filter-buying-guide/
Mercury
Caution: That sushi you are eating could be hazardous to your health.
Mercury, a naturally occurring but toxic metal, gets into the air and
the oceans primarily though burning coal. Eventually, it can end up on
your plate in the form of mercury-contaminated seafood. Pregnant women
are the most at risk from the toxic effects of mercury, since the metal
is known to concentrate in the fetal brain and can interfere with brain
development. Mercury is also known to bind directly to one particular
hormone that regulates women’s menstrual cycle and ovulation,
interfering with normal signaling pathways. In other words, hormones
don’t work so well when they’ve got mercury stuck to them! The metal may
also play a role in diabetes, since mercury has been shown to damage
cells in the pancreas that produce insulin, which is critical for the
body’s ability to metabolize sugar.
How to avoid it? For people who still want to eat
(sustainable) seafood with lots of healthy fats but without a side of
toxic mercury, wild salmon and farmed trout are good choices.
Perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs)
The perfluorinated chemicals used to make non-stick cookware can stick to
you.
Perfluorochemicals are so widespread and extraordinarily persistent
that 99 percent of Americans have these chemicals in their bodies. One
particularly notorious compound called PFOA has been shown to be
“completely resistant to biodegradation.” In other words, PFOA doesn’t
break down in the environment – ever. That means that even though the
chemical was banned after decades of use, it will be showing up in
people’s bodies for countless generations to come. This is worrisome,
since PFOA exposure has been linked to decreased sperm quality, low
birth weight, kidney disease, thyroid disease and high cholesterol,
among other health issues. Scientists are still figuring out how PFOA
affects the human body, but animal studies have found that it can affect
thyroid and sex hormone levels.
How to avoid it? Skip non-stick pans as well as stain and water-resistant coatings on clothing, furniture and carpets.
Organophosphate pesticides
Neurotoxic organophosphate compounds that the Nazis produced in huge
quantities for chemical warfare during World War II were luckily never
used. After the war ended, American scientists used the same chemistry
to develop a long line of pesticides that target the nervous systems of
insects. Despite many studies linking organophosphate exposure to
effects on brain development, behavior and fertility, they are still
among the more common pesticides in use today. A few of the many ways
that organophosphates can affect the human body include interfering with
the way testosterone communicates with cells, lowering testosterone and
altering thyroid hormone levels.
How to avoid it? Buy organic produce and use EWG’s
Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce, which can help you find the
fruits and vegetables that have the fewest pesticide residues. Check it
out at:
www.ewg.org/foodnews/
Glycol Ethers
Shrunken testicles: Do we have your full attention now? This is one
thing that can happen to rats exposed to chemicals called glycol ethers,
which are common solvents in paints, cleaning products, brake fluid and
cosmetics. Worried? You should be. The European Union says that some of
these chemicals “may damage fertility or the unborn child.” Studies of
painters have linked exposure to certain glycol ethers to blood
abnormalities and lower sperm counts. And children who were exposed to
glycol ethers from paint in their bedrooms had substantially more asthma
and allergies.
How to avoid it? Start by checking out EWG’s Guide to Healthy Cleaning (
www.ewg.org/guides/cleaners/) and avoid products with ingredients such as 2-butoxyethanol (EGBE) and methoxydiglycol (DEGME).
Key Issues, Toxics, Health Concerns:
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