industryterm:endocrine-disrupting chemical

Sperm counts of Western men are plummeting, analysis finds - CNN.com
▻http://edition.cnn.com/2017/07/25/health/sperm-counts-declining-study/index.html

Sperm counts of men in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand are plunging, according to a new analysis published Tuesday.

Among these men there has been a 52% decline in sperm concentration and a 59% decline in total sperm count over a nearly 40-year period ending in 2011, the analysis, published in the journal Human Reproduction Update, said.
[…]
Though Levine emphasized that his analysis did not study the cause of declines, he speculated the reason may be “°we are exposed to many chemicals we’ve never been exposed to before.°”

Previous studies, including his own, show that exposure in utero to endocrine disrupting chemicals can harm male reproductive system development and fertility potential. Commonly used chemicals, including pesticides, lead and fire retardants, can increase or decrease production of certain hormones within our bodies and so are said to disrupt our endocrine, or hormone-making, system.
Sonya Lunder, a senior analyst at the nonprofit advocacy group Environmental Working Group, noted that sperm is manufactured daily by men’s bodies. Recent exposures to environmental chemicals would have an effect on sperm, which serves as a good indicator of contamination, while also serving as a good biomarker of men’s health.

Lunder cites the work of Russ Hauser, a professor of reproductive physiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, who suggests that exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals may be associated with poorer sperm quality among men and worse reproductive outcomes among women.

#perturbateur_endocrinien

The Dangerous Chemical Lurking in Your Beer Can | Mother Jones
▻http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2015/02/no-i-cant-why-im-turning-away-canned-craft-beer

http://www.motherjones.com/files/shutterstock_49248100.jpg

Like most other commercially available cans, beer cans are lined with epoxy that contains #bisphenol_A (BPA), a chemical that keeps foods from reacting to #aluminum, but that has also become associated with a range of ailments, including cancer, reproductive trouble, and irregular brain development in kids. BPA is well established as an endocrine-disrupting chemical, meaning that it likely causes hormonal damage at extremely low levels. The question is whether we get enough of it in beer (and other canned goods) to cause harm.

(...)

BPA-free can linings are only approved for low-acid foods like beans. For high-acid substances like tomatoes or beer, there’s no approved alternative yet.

#canette #bière #santé

’Suppressed’ EU report could have banned harmful pesticides worth billions | The Guardian
▻http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/feb/02/suppressed-eu-report-could-have-banned-pesticides-worth-billions

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/2/2/1422877545466/289d63a2-903b-43e8-8831-aa2451acabd3-2060x1236.jpeg

As many as 31 pesticides with a value running into billions of pounds could have been banned because of potential health risks, if a blocked EU paper on hormone-mimicking chemicals had been acted upon, the Guardian has learned.

The science paper, seen by the Guardian, recommends ways of identifying and categorising the #endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) that scientists link to a rise in foetal abnormalities, genital mutations, infertility, and adverse health effects ranging from #cancer to IQ loss.

(...) the risks associated with exposure to even low-potency EDCs is so great that potency alone should not serve as a basis for chemicals being approved for use.

Fracking Chemicals May Disrupt Hormonal Activity
▻http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/818223

Twelve chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” operations to extract natural gas all showed endocrine-disrupting chemical (EDC) activity in laboratory cell studies, researchers report.

Moreover, surface and ground water samples from sites near spills at controversial drilling operations contained higher levels of the 12 EDCs than samples from control sites.

“While these chemicals were selected because of their suspected or known EDC activity, very few had been shown to have direct receptor activity,” the researchers write."Thus, this is the first demonstration of antiestrogenic or antiandrogenic activity for most of these chemicals."

The surface and ground water samples from “sites that have experienced some kind of spill related to natural gas drilling had on average about two-times the endocrine-disrupting activity than [samples from] sites that had not experienced a spill,” senior author Susan C. Nagel, PhD, University of Missouri School of Medicine, Columbia, told Medscape Medical News.

(...)

“The use of [hydraulic fracturing] has dramatically increased over the last 20 years,” and the number of natural gas wells in Colorado has increased almost 10-fold, Dr. Nagel said. Importantly, in 2005, hydraulic fracturing was exempted from multiple federal-regulatory acts including the Safe Drinking Water Act, Clean Water Act, and Clean Air Act.

(...)

Hormonal activity was measured using a gene assay in human cell lines.

Of the 12 chemicals analyzed, 1 (bisphenol A) exhibited estrogenic activity, 11 had antiestrogenic activity, 10 had antiandrogenic activity, and none had androgenic activity. To the researchers’ knowledge, this is the first report of antiestrogenic activity of 10 chemicals, including 3 types of ethylene glycol, as well as novel antiandrogenic activity in 6 chemicals, including naphthalene.

In the second part of the analysis, of 39 unique water samples, 89% exhibited estrogenic activity, 41% exhibited antiestrogenic activity, 12% exhibited androgenic activity, and 46% exhibited antiandrogenic activity.

Moderate-to-high estrogen- or androgen-receptor activities were measured in water samples from the Garfield County spill sites. Moderate-activity levels were also measured in samples collected from the Colorado River, the drainage basin for the region. In contrast, very little receptor activity was measured in water samples where there was no or sparse drilling.

“We identified EDC activity of several individual chemical components used in natural gas operations that may contribute to the activity that we measured in water,” the researchers summarize. They call for more impact studies: “There is evidence that hydraulic fracturing fluids are associated with negative health outcomes, and there is a critical need to quickly and thoroughly evaluate the overall human and environmental health impact of this process.”

#fracturation_hydraulique #santé #gaz #eau