What Are Endocrine Disrupters?

Endocrine disrupters are chemicals that affect the normal production and action of hormones in the human body, particularly the sex hormones.

Currently many scientists are worried about the levels of endocrine disrupters that are found in the environment. Many of these come from contamination from everyday products such as shower gels, bath foams and cleaning fluids. Some of the preservatives and other components of these products build up to dangerous levels and have been identified as endocrine disrupters.

In aquatic ecosystems, the effects can be devastating and newspaper reports a few years ago highlighted that fish exposed to environmental contamination containing endocrine disrupters actually began to change sex.

There are worries that the current levels could be affecting human male sperm counts and even the development of male embryos. An international conference on endocrine disrupters took place in Helsinki in November 2006, arranged and hosted by the Academy of Finland in cooperation with the European Commission. Key themes of the meeting included exposure to chemicals and risk assessment, human epidemiology, ecotoxicology as well as research methods, mechanisms and models.

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