Endocrine disruptors, sometimes also referred to as hormonally active agents, endocrine disrupting chemicals, or endocrine disrupting compounds are chemicals that can interfere with endocrine systems. These disruptions can cause numerous adverse human health outcomes, including alterations in sperm quality and fertility; abnormalities in sex organs‚ endometriosis‚ early puberty‚ altered nervous system or immune function; certain cancers; respiratory problems; metabolic issues; diabetes, obesity, or cardiovascular problems; growth, neurological and learning disabilities, and more. Found in many household and industrial products, endocrine disruptors "interfere with the synthesis, secretion, transport, binding, action, or elimination of natural hormones in the body that are responsible for development, behavior, fertility, and maintenance of homeostasis ."
The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) is one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States Department of Health and Human Services. It supports and conducts research aimed at improving the health of children, adults, families, and communities, including:
The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) conducts research into the effects of the environment on human disease, as one of the 27 institutes and centers of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It is located in the Research Triangle Park in North Carolina, and is the only primary division of the NIH located outside of the Washington metropolitan area.
David Platt Rall was a cancer specialist and a leader in environmental health studies, whose work in environmental health helped turn it into a scientific discipline. Rall also advanced public health and prevention. He directed the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences from 1971 to 1990, year in which he retired. His work on toxicology and carcinogenesis was recognized by his appointment as the first director of the National Toxicology Program in 1978. He held the rank of Assistant Surgeon General in the United States Public Health Service. He also chaired the World Health Organization's Program on Chemical Safety.
Xenoestrogens are a type of xenohormone that imitates estrogen. They can be either synthetic or natural chemical compounds. Synthetic xenoestrogens include some widely used industrial compounds, such as PCBs, BPA, and phthalates, which have estrogenic effects on a living organism even though they differ chemically from the estrogenic substances produced internally by the endocrine system of any organism. Natural xenoestrogens include phytoestrogens which are plant-derived xenoestrogens. Because the primary route of exposure to these compounds is by consumption of phytoestrogenic plants, they are sometimes called "dietary estrogens". Mycoestrogens, estrogenic substances from fungi, are another type of xenoestrogen that are also considered mycotoxins.
Theodora Emily Colborn was Founder and President Emerita of The Endocrine Disruption Exchange (TEDX), based in Paonia, Colorado, and Professor Emerita of Zoology at the University of Florida, Gainesville. She was an environmental health analyst, and best known for her studies on the health effects of endocrine disrupting chemicals. She died in 2014.
Bruce Sherman McEwen was an American neuroendocrinologist and head of the Harold and Margaret Milliken Hatch Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology at Rockefeller University. He was known for his work on the effects of environmental and psychological stress, having coined the term allostatic load.
Linda Silber Birnbaum is an American toxicologist, microbiologist and the former director of the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences, as well as the National Toxicology Program, positions she held from January 18, 2009 until October 3, 2019. She also serves as an adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health and as a member of the editorial board of Environment International.
Sibte Hasan Zaidi was an Indian pathologist and toxicologist born in April 1918. He underwent training in pathology at the Hammersmith Hospital in London, United Kingdom and later returned to India to continue with experimental toxicology research.
Bisphenol F is an organic compound with the chemical formula (HOC
6H
4)
2CH
2. It is structurally related to bisphenol A (BPA), a popular precursor for forming plastics, as both belong to the category of molecules known as bisphenols, which feature two phenol groups connected via a linking group. In BPF, the two aromatic rings are linked by a methylene connecting group. In response to concern about the health effects of BPA, BPF is increasingly used as a substitute for BPA.
Deborah Liebl Swackhamer was an environmental chemist and professor emerita at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Swackhamer applied her expertise in studying the effects of exposure to toxic chemicals, as well as the processes that spread those chemicals, to developing policies that address exposure risks.
Robyn Leigh Tanguay is an American researcher, academic and educator. She is a distinguished professor in the department of environmental and molecular toxicology at Oregon State University. She is the director of Superfund Research Program, the director of Pacific Northwest Center for Translational Environmental Health Research and the director of Sinnhuber Aquatic Research Laboratory at OSU.
Germaine M. Buck Louis was the Dean of the George Mason University College of Health and Human Services and professor in Mason’s Department of Global and Community Health. She led the College in becoming Virginia's first accredited College of Public Health prior to her retirement in 2022. Her expertise focuses on environmental exposures and human health, particularly human reproduction and pregnancy. Prior to her appointment as dean at George Mason in 2017, she was the founding Director for the Division of Intramural Population Health Research at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
Joni L. Rutter is an American geneticist and director of the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS). Rutter was previously director of the scientific programs in the All of Us initiative and served as the neuroscience and behavior division director at the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Her scientific experience includes clinical research in human genetics and environmental risk factors focusing on the fields of cancer and addiction.
Cheryl Lyn Walker is an American molecular biologist.
Gwen W. Collman is an American environmental epidemiologist. Collman is acting deputy director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and works as director of the division of extramural research and training.
Katrina Blouke Goddard is an American genetic epidemiologist and biostatistician specializing in public health genomics and the translation of genomic applications into clinical practice. Goddard is the director of the division of cancer control and population sciences (DCCPS) at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). She was previously the distinguished investigator and director of translational and applied genomics at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research and a faculty member at Case Western Reserve University.
Janet Elizabeth Hall is a Canadian-American physician-scientist and neuroendocrinologist specialized in the human reproductive physiology and pathophysiology. Her research focuses on women's health and the neuroendocrine interactions governing normal reproduction and the impact of aging. She is the clinical director at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Hall was previously a professor of medicine at the Harvard Medical School.
Jessica M. Gill is an American nurse scientist working as a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Trauma Recovery Biomarkers in the department of neurology at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing and School of Medicine since 2021. She was the acting deputy director of the National Institute of Nursing Research from 2019 to 2020 and deputy director of the Center for Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences until 2021.
Suzanne E. Fenton is an American biologist specializing in endocrinology and reproductive physiology. She has served as the director of the Center for Human Health and the Environment at North Carolina State University since 2023. Fenton previously a researcher at the United States Environmental Protection Agency and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
