Scientists and doctors raise global alarm over hormone-disrupting chemicals

A new report makes the strong case that a class of industrial chemicals called endocrine disruptors are behind many diseases on the rise globally. The report calls for stronger global regulations controlling their use and release into the environment.

A joint effort by the Endocrine Society and the International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN), the report includes fresh research from the past decade documenting evidence that endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) contribute to reproductive disorders, cancer, diabetes, obesity, heart disease, neurological conditions, reduced immune function, chronic inflammation, and other serious health conditions. Research shows the chemicals to be especially dangerous to pregnant women and to children.

Endocrine disruptors interfere with natural human hormones and disrupt the smooth functioning of the endocrine system, which governs everything from fetal development and fertility to skin appearance, metabolism, and immune function. Some endocrine-related disorders can lead to death.

More than 24% of human diseases and disorders globally are attributable to environmental factors such as pollutants and hazardous chemical exposure, the report says, and those environmental factors play a role in 80% of the deadliest diseases, including cancer and heart disease.

There are an estimated 350,000 manufactured chemicals and polymers used worldwide, and thousands of those may be endocrine disruptors. Most have not been studied for their effects on human health before being released onto the market.

Lagging EDC regulation, growing concern

Current global legislation on toxic chemical exposure is based on the traditional understanding that “the dose makes the poison.” That is, hazardous substances only impact health at high levels. But IPEN science advisor Sara Brosché, Ph.D., countered that misperception in the organization’s press release: “We know that even very low doses of endocrine disrupting chemicals can cause health problems and there may be no safe dose for exposure to EDCs.” Regulation of endocrine disruptors around the globe is similarly lax and lagging behind current science.

The new report was released during the U.N. Environment Assembly (UNEA-6) meeting in Nairobi, where the UNEA is expected to welcome the newly adopted Global Framework on Chemicals, and try to advance global action on highly hazardous pesticides. Later this year both UNEP and the World Health Organization are expected to release an update to their 12-year-old Report on State of the Science of Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals.

The Endocrine Society, an organization of hormone research scientists and physicians who care for people with hormone-related conditions, and IPEN, which promotes policies to protect human health from the production, use and disposal of toxic substances, is not alone in sounding the alarm.

Medical societies including the American Medical Association, American Public Health Association, the U.K.’s Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, American Society of Reproductive Medicine, and the International Conference on Children’s Health and Environment have all issued statements calling for more care and control of endocrine disruptors.

Endocrine disruptor exposure is ubiquitous

The new report examines four sources of endocrine-disrupting chemicals: plastics, pesticides, consumer products, and PFAS.

Since the Endocrine Society’s last report on this topic in 2014, the scientific understanding of per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS) and their link to endocrine-related illness has grown enormously and now comprises its own section of the report. PFAS is a class of chemicals used for stain and water-resistant coatings, and has been found on children’s clothing and food packaging, as well as in the drinking water of almost half of Americans. The 2024 report also expands on evidence indicating that endocrine disruptors can lead to metabolic dysfunctions, including obesity.

Consumers can easily be exposed to endocrine disruptors through furniture, toys and children’s products, food packaging, electronics, building materials, cosmetics, and clothing. However, this information is not being systematically disseminated to physicians or patients who have endocrine-related disorders. Nor is it included on product labels, except for cosmetics, where it can be confusing and unhelpful.

“We [physicians and scientists] need to do a better job of getting resources to the public,” the report’s lead author Andrea C Gore, professor and Vacek chair of pharmacology at the University of Texas at Austin, wrote to Mongabay in an email. “Some physicians I know tell me that they ask their patients, including in fertility clinics, about lifestyle choices. These questions are beginning to include [concerns] over the use of plastics, what people eat, and can lead to conversations to make changes such as not microwaving in plastic, and washing fruit and vegetables.”

But the toxicity issue goes far beyond the kitchen. Although endocrine disruptors like bisphenol A (BPA), get the most attention when they’re in consumer products such as baby bottles, “Exposures to EDCs from plastics occur at all phases of plastics production, use, disposal, and even from recycled plastics,” the report says.