Links wildlife exposure

Depending upon the circumstance and desired effects, endocrine-disrupting chemicals can be either good or bad. The endocrine system is a finely balanced system responsible for fertility and many of the feminine and masculine traits we are all familiar with. Endocrine disruptors are used by millions of women in the form of the pill to control fertility. Chemicals in birth control pills subtly manipulate the endocrine system to reduce fertility. Unfortunately, we now know that many chemicals are capable of influencing the endocrine systems. When these chemicals, such as DDT and TCDD, are released into the environment, they reduce the fertility of wildlife. Exposure to endocrine disruptors is linked to decreased fertility in shellfish, fish, birds, and mammals. Endocrine disruptors such as nonylphenol have been shown to feminize male fish, interfering with reproduction. Some studies have also linked exposure to endocrine disruptors to decreases in human male sperm count. Ironically, urinary metabolites of the birth control pill as well as the female hormone estrogen pass through waste treatment plants and are released into the aquatic environment, where even small concentrations cause feminization of male fish. 

Humans can be exposed to POPs through diet, occupational exposures (for example, farmworkers may be exposed to POPs through pesticides), industrial accidents and the environment (including indoor exposure). Exposure to POPs, either acute or chronic, can be associated with a wide range of adverse health effects, including illness and death (L. Ritter et al., 1995). Laboratory animal studies and wildlife studies have associated POPs with endocrine disruption, reproductive and immune dysfunction, neurobehavioral disorders and cancer. More recently, some POPs have also been connected to reduced immunity in infants and children and a concomitant increase in infections. Other studies have linked POPS concentrations in humans with developmental abnormalities, neurobehavioral impairment and cancer and tumor induction or promotion.4... 

The most common phthalate plasticisers are di-2-ethyl hexyl phthalate (DEHP), di-isodecyl phthalate (DIDP), and di-isononyl phthalate (DINP). Phthalate use has been controversial for years becanse of its snspected health hazards, especially in the case of DEEIP. In both wildlife and laboratory animals, phthalates have been linked to a range of reproductive health effects, with claims that most of them can function as an endocrine disrupting chemical (EDC), and also as cancer-causing agents (specifically in the liver and kidneys). Snch negative effects that phthalates are suspected to have on health have been attribnted to short ester chains (< C9). In fact, phthalates are already distributed worldwide in the environment. Some phthalates are even found in deep-sea jellyfish 1,000 meters below the surface of the North Atlantic Ocean. A number of studies have shown that most people are probably contaminated by substantial quantities of these chemicals, and yet for hnmans, no safe level of exposure to phthalates has been determined. There are also claims about the leaching of certain phthalate plasticisers from biomedical plastics (e.g., intravenous tubes) and hence directly into the patients bloodstream. In one snch stndy, it was shown that about 60% of the DEHP/DOP had migrated to the patient, while almost all of the bis (2-ethylhexyl) adipate (DOA) has been retained in the tnbe [28]. 

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