Prenatal Origins of Endocrine Disruption. Recent advances in research confirm that endocrine disruptors can interfere with the gene-controlled, normal signaling systems that determine every aspect of embryonic and fetal development. Over the past decade it has been demonstrated that there are endless ways endocrine disruptors can interfere with gene expression.
Published from The Endocrine Disruption Exchange, Inc. (TEDX)
http://endocrinedisruption.org/about-tedx/about
The Endocrine Disruption Exchange, Inc. (TEDX), a 501(c)(3) organization, is based in Paonia, Colorado, and is incorporated as a business under the laws of that state. It was founded by Dr. Theo Colborn, who has written and lectured widely on the human health and environmental threat posed by endocrine disruptors and other industrially-produced chemicals at low concentrations in the environment. Dr. Colborn serves as the President of TEDX and holds the academic rank of Professor Emeritus, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida. TEDX’s programs and finances are overseen by a Board of Directors, whose specialties include public health service, environmental policy development and analysis, environmental advocacy, medical ethics, philosophy and children’s environmental health.
TEDX (The Endocrine Disruption Exchange, Inc.) is the only organization that focuses primarily on the human health and environmental problems caused by low-dose and/or ambient exposure to chemicals that interfere with development and function, called endocrine disruptors. Since antiquity, humans have known that some chemical substances in the environment can cause adverse health effects. For example, the Romans knew that sentencing prisoners to work in lead mines was a death sentence due to the toxicity of elemental lead.
We have learned over time that many chemical substances can cause a range of adverse health problems, including death, cancer, birth defects, and delays in development of cognitive functions. For instance, it is well established that asbestos can cause a fatal form of lung cancer, thalidomide can cause limb deformities, and breathing high concentrations of some industrial solvents can cause irreversible brain damage and death. Only relatively recently have we learned that a large number of chemicals can penetrate the womb and alter the construction and programming of a child before it is born. Through trans-generational exposure, endocrine disruptors cause adverse developmental and reproductive disorders at extremely low amounts in the womb, and often within the range of human exposure.
TEDX’s work focuses on the endocrine system, which is the exquisitely balanced system of glands and hormones that regulates such vital functions as body growth, response to stress, sexual development and behavior, production and utilization of insulin, rate of metabolism, intelligence and behavior. Hormones are chemicals such as insulin, thyroxin, estrogen, and testosterone that interact with specific target cells. The interactions occur through a number of mechanisms, the easiest of which to conceptualize is through a lock and key arrangement. For example, target cells such as those in the uterus contain receptor anatomical areas (locks) into which specific estrogenic hormones can attach (key) and thereby cause specific biological actions, such as regulating ovulation or terminating pregnancy. As a matter of science, some synthetic chemicals such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and their substitute, polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), have been found to mimic this kind of cellular lock-key mechanism by locking onto a specific blood protein that ordinarily transports thyroid hormones throughout the body, blocking the function of the blood protein and thereby disrupting normal biological processes.
Why is TEDX unique? TEDX’s work is prevention driven, and it is the only environmental organization that focuses on the problems associated with endocrine disruption attributable to synthetic chemicals found in the general environment. While there are other national, international, and local organizations that address the public health and environmental consequences of toxic chemicals in the environment, none of them expressly emphasize endocrine disruption. By mainly focusing on substances in the environment that interfere with development and function throughout all life stages, TEDX has one of the most complete databases in the world on this topic, available for those concerned about public health and environmental quality. This database was developed because traditional toxicological protocols have used high doses on fully developed tissues and individuals that heretofore missed the consequences of chemical substances on developing tissues.
TEDX is unique because it focuses on the damaging activity of chemicals on biological systems from an entirely new approach. This new approach focuses on the effects of very low and ambient levels of exposure on developing tissue and resulting function before an individual is born, which can lead to irreversible, chronic disorders expressed at any time throughout the individual’s life. Endocrine disruption takes into consideration the vulnerability of every individual in the population during their most vulnerable life stages. By providing this unique perspective on the actions of endocrine disruptors, TEDX fills in the very large gap in public health protection that traditional toxicology and government regulatory agencies do not fill. Drawing upon its computerized databases on endocrine disruption and coordination with researchers in the field of endocrine disruption, TEDX provides the very latest summaries of the state of knowledge and its meaning for human health and the environment.
Why is TEDX needed? The human health consequences of endocrine disruption are dire. Yet, no chemical has been regulated in the U.S. to date because of its endocrine disrupting effects. The U.S. government has failed to respond to the evolving science of endocrine disruption. While much remains to be learned in regard to the nature and extent of the impact of endocrine disruptors on human health, enough is known now to assume a precautionary approach should be taken. TEDX provides concerned persons and organizations with a science-based foundation for individuals to act and promote responsive public policy-making. Moreover, as federal government resources devoted to research on endocrine disruption have diminished due to budget cuts, TEDX must assume an even more prominent role in developing and disseminating information on the human and environmental impacts of endocrine disruption.
In the early 1990’s, it was revealed that the traditional toxicological testing protocols used to determine chemical safety had completely missed vast numbers of chemicals that penetrate the womb and interfere with the construction and programming of developing animals, including humans. Since that time, overwhelming evidence has accumulated indicating that the presence of infinitesimally small quantities of certain chemicals during the continuously changing stages of development before birth can alter one’s inherited phenotype, e.g., the ability to learn, to love, to bond, to process information, to reproduce, and even to maintain normal body weight. Because these chemicals interfere with development by disturbing the function of the endocrine system, they are called endocrine disruptors. The endocrine system is so finely tuned that it depends upon changes in hormones in concentrations as little as a tenth of a trillion of a gram to control the womb environment. That’s as inconspicuous as one second in 3,169 centuries.
Recent advances in research confirm that endocrine disruptors can interfere with the gene-controlled, normal signaling systems that determine every aspect of embryonic and fetal development. Over the past decade it has been demonstrated that there are endless ways endocrine disruptors can interfere with gene expression. They can interfere with how genes are programmed in the developing tissues of the unborn, thus changing how a teen or an adult would ordinarily respond to the normal chemical signals that control function as they mature. Disorders that have increased in prevalence in recent years such as abnormal male gonadal development, infertility, ADHD, autism, diabetes, thyroid disorders, and childhood and adult cancers are now being linked to fetal exposure. The increases in these disorders are also being reported in other northern hemisphere countries, constituting a problem of global proportion.
The costs of such disorders at the individual and family level can oftentimes be heart-rending and economically devastating; increasing numbers of individuals are spending their lives in a state of dependency. At the population level, the costs run into billions of dollars in lost income annually for one disorder alone. Endocrine disruptors have become an integral part of our economy and modern lifestyle, while at the same time are insidiously depleting the pool of healthy and intelligent individuals on a global scale.
Critical Windows of Development is a timeline of how the human body develops in the womb, with animal research showing when low-dose exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals during development results in altered health outcomes. Human-made chemicals have become an accepted part of our world. They’re in what we eat, what we drink, what we touch, and what we breathe. In fact, they can be found in the umbilical cords of almost every baby born today.Many of these chemicals have been recognized as ‘endocrine disruptors,’ which means they interfere with the communication system of glands, hormones and cellular receptors that control our body’s internal functions.
Low dose exposure to endocrine disruptors, once thought to be harmless, has been shown to have serious health effects in lab animals exposed in the womb and/or shortly after birth through their mother’s milk. Effects found in animals occur at chemical doses comparable to concentrations regularly found in humans and may provide a clue to the many disorders that have dramatically and inexplicably increased since these chemicals became part and parcel of human existence.
Click here to View the Timeline, or choose from the menu to the right for more information.
Exposure to low-doses of endocrine disrupting chemicals rarely causes gross abnormalities that are obvious at birth. A more likely scenario is that they interfere with the programming that occurs during development, thus creating disease susceptibilities later in life. When people find themselves faced with fertility problems, breast cancer, prostate cancer, diabetes, or thyroid problems, they rarely think, “I wonder what I might have been exposed to in my mother’s womb.” Yet this may be exactly where the answer lies.
The time frame between exposure and the appearance of disease can be long and is often complicated by many intervening factors. It is only now, after four generations of humans exposed in the womb, that we can look at population level statistics and see increases in diseases and disorders that are difficult to explain through other variables.
Most people are not aware of the thousands of pesticides and their formulations that are in use today, some of them in huge volumes and on huge acreages worldwide. They comprise acaricides, algicides, antifoulants, avicides, bactericides, herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, molluscicides, nematicides, piscicides, rodenticides, virucides, and the related plant and insect growth regulators; chemosterilants; bird, mammal and insect repellents, insect pheromones and other attractants. Product formulations may contain more than one active ingredient, as well as synergists, “safeners”, and other ingredients formerly known as “inerts”.
Our particular concern about pesticides is that they have been designed to disrupt biological systems, causing death to target organisms, such as insects or plants. Some actually work by acting on the hormone systems of insects and plants. The problem is that the biochemistry of most living things is similar enough that humans, wildlife and plants can also be adversely affected by pesticides.
In the past, much of the human and wildlife health-related research on pesticides has dealt with more or less immediate toxicity at relatively high doses, or has been concerned only with the primary mode of action of a single active ingredient in the pesticide product. In recent years, these concerns have broadened to include other possible actions of the ingredients, and testing at exposure levels more relevant to what may be in the environment.
TEDX is following the literature that explores the adverse effects of pesticides, as well as the adverse health effects of their metabolites and formulations. Effects may happen at extremely low doses; they may affect multiple signaling systems that control function and development; they may be subtle, long-term and/or delayed; and through parental exposure they may even affect subsequent generations.
Click here to see our resources and links related to pesticides.
Glossary of Terms
Attractant – attracts an organism, such as an insect
Acaricide – used to kill mites
Active ingredient –in a pesticide, the ingredient that kills or controls the pest.
Algicide – used to kill algae
Antifoulant – used to prevent barnacles and other organisms from colonizing ship hulls, etc.
Avicide – used to kill birds
Bactericide – used to kill bacteria
Chemosterilant – causes reproductive sterility in an organism
Growth regulator – acts as a plant or insect hormone that regulates growth
Herbicide – used to kill plants
Inert – in pesticides, a chemical whose primary function is other than that of an active ingredient
Insecticide – used to kill insects
Fungicide – used to kill fungi and mold
Molluscicide – used to kill mollusks (snails, slugs, mussels, etc.)
Nematicide – used to kill nematode worms
Pheromone – signals other organisms of the same species and affects their behavior
Piscicide – used to kill fish
Repellent – repels an organism, such as an insect
Rodenticide – used to kill rodents (rats and mice, etc.)
Safener – reduces the effects of a pesticide on non-target organisms
Synergist – makes the active ingredient more effective than it would be by itself
Virucide – used to kill viruses
The following is a list of human disorders that have increased in prevalence since the 1970s. There is now sufficient evidence from human epidemiological and lab animal studies to support the hypothesis that these disorders could in part be the result of prenatal exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals.
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APP Advocate Precautionary Principle 
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