Environmental Health Tools – e.hormone

Wading through the bisphenol-a morass in an effort to tell a coherent story about this substance has taken me into endocrine hormone territory. Hormones are a fascinating but high complex topic, but in the course of my journey, I’ve rediscovered the e.hormone site hosted by the Center for Bioenvironmental Research at Tulane/Xavier Universities. The CBR conducts research on environmental signaling. On the “about” page, they say this about environmental signaling:

Environmental signaling encompasses the many ways plants and animals use chemical signals to communicate life-driving information, to respond to physical or biological stimuli, and to talk to each other. The internal and external signals police interactions within and between cells and organs as well as among individuals and species. Sometimes, certain natural compounds and synthetic chemicals incorrectly trigger signaling mechanisms – turning them on and off at the wrong times or changing signal intensity that may affect reproduction and health.

Endocrine disruption is one of the most studied areas of inadvertent environmental signaling. Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) – the pesticides, plasticizers, pharmaceuticals, and other pollutants that interfere with estrogen and other hormone system signals – can affect cells to ecosystems and invertebrates to vertebrates. Humans and animals are exposed to EDCs through food, water, and air and can experience health effects ranging from subtle changes in blood hormone levels to overt reproductive abnormalities, infertility, and cancer. Facing the most risk are women of childbearing age, due to increased exposure through lifestyle choices, and infants and children, due to their small size, higher exposure, and fast growth.

EDCs are something that we’re probably going to have to learn to live with, since I don’t see us moving very quickly with reducing exposure to the pesticides, plasticizers, and pharmaceuticals which might be responsible for inadvertent cell signaling. e.hormone (which is also on the blogroll now) is going to be a handy resource for me, and I hope for you too.