What chemicals are the culprits?
As expected, endocrine disruptors include carcinogens, like pesticides and PCBs (a banned industrial chemical dispersed by air and water to all corners of the globe.)

Endocrine disruptors also include brominated flame retardants such as those used in computers. (These flame retardants would be banned by 2004 under the proposed WEEE directive that SVTC has been supporting. WEEE is the draft European Commission Directive on Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), which is designed to require electronics manufacturers to move towards more sustainable production, processes and waste management of computers). For more information on brominated flame retardants in electronic equipment, visit SVTC’s website at http://www.svtc.org/cleancc/eccc.htm. Endocrine disruptors also include some surprises--like bisphenol-A - a chemical widely used in plastics, including infant toys.

So, what is being done?
Since 1987, Theo Colburn, a crusading scientist, now with the World Wildlife Fund, has virtually devoted her life to bringing this issue to the attention of the public, the scienctific research community and the government. In January 1996, Al Gore wrote a foreword to her book, Our Stolen Future: Are We Threatening Our Fertility, Intelligence and Our Survival? He called the book “a sequel to Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring”, a book which helped kindle the movement that led to Earth Day in 1970. Activists in New York and New Jersey, inspired by Colburn’s work, fought successfully for passage of the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996. This law required EPA to develop a program to test pesticides to see if they disrupted hormonal and reproductive systems. In response, EPA created a gargantuan program, the Endocrine Distruptor Screening Testing and Advisory Committee, to develop and validate test methods.

These efforts have been plagued by insufficient funding, scientific hurdles and industry footdragging. The agency appears to be on the verge of beginning actual testing of chemicals. Yet NRDC led a coalition to sue EPA for filing to meet the August 1999 deadline for completing the testing program.

Meanwhile, Europe has been much more proactive. Several European countries found hormonally active substances in plastic teething rings and toys. Preferring rather to be safe than sorry, and acting in accordance with the “Precautionary Principle,” they banned these toys from the market. (The Precautionary Principle, adopted at the UN Earth Summit in Rio in 1992, states that “when an activity raises threats of harm to human health or the environment, precautionary methods should be taken even if some cause and effect relationships are not fully established scientifically.”)

In December 1999, the European Union issued its Strategy for Endocrine Disruptors and in April 2000 is expected to identify the top “suspected endocrine disruptors” to target in its testing program. At the same time, the United Nations, since 1995, has been stepping towards a global treaty covering 12 persistent organic pollutants (POPs) including PCBs and DDT, known endocrine disruptors. The next year will be a critical phase in determining whether a groundbreaking environmental and public health treaty will be agreed to or whittled down beyond recognition. SVTC’s Leslie Byster attended the last meeting of the POPs Convention in Geneva, Switzerland in September.

What is industry’s response?
Most relevant industry associations have issued statements about hormone disrupting chemicals, generally stating their concern, calling for more research before action and trying to claim that the effects are not likely to be significant when compared to natural estrogens. Some companies have stopped using suspect chemicals, while others will probably continue using them unless they are banned.

Continued pressure to reduce toxics at international, national and local levels is essential if these chemicals are to be phased out and replaced by safe alternatives.

A partial list of endocrine disrupting chemicals
The endocrine system is composed of organs, tissues and cells that make and secrete natural hormoes to regulate other kinds of cells in the body. At least 48 common chemicals are known to have reproductive and endocrine (hormone disrupting effects). These include pesticides, plastics, and industrial chemicals and solvents. Chlorine is found in at least half of these compounds.

Industrial Chemicals: cadmium, dioxin (2,3,7,8-TCDD) lead, mercurcy, tributyl tin, PCBs, PBBs, brominated diphenyl ethers (flame retardants), phthalates, bis-phenol-A (used in plastics), pentachorophenol (wood preservative), polycarbonates, styrenes, pentaphenols to nonylphenols.

Nematocides: aldicarb, DBCP

Herbicides: 2-4D, 2,4,5-T, alachlor, amitrole, atrazine, metribuzin, nitrofen, trifluraliin, benomyl, hexachlorobenzene, mancozeb, maneb, metiram-complex, tributylin, vinclozin, zineb, ziram Insecticides: Beta-HCH, carbaryl, chlordane, dicofol, dieldrin, DDT & metabolites,endosulfan, heptachlor & H-epoxicide, lindane (gamma-HCH), methomyl, methoxychlor, mirex, oxychlordane, parathion, synthetic pyrethroids, toxaphene, transnonachlor

Source: RACHEL’S Hazardous Waste News, #365, November 23, 1993, by Environemntal Research Foundation.

Richard McMurtry is SVTC Environmental Engineer