Environmental Hormone Mimics Pose a Potentially Serious Health Threat

Paper instructions:

Please write a 300 word reply to the paper below. Do Environmental Hormone Mimics Pose a Potentially Serious Health Threat? Please used 3 scientific journal for the references

“Do Environmental Hormone Mimics Pose a Potentially Serious Health Threat?”
There have been over 100,000 chemicals produced by man over the last century and there are many more being created every year. (Easton, 2009) My opinion is that we would be foolish to think that none of these manmade chemicals pose health risks to the environment, wildlife and humans, but while doing research this week it was again hard for me to find real strong evidence on exactly what the health risks are from these “Endocrine Disruptors”.  Even when I searched a reputable organization like the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) who has conducted studies on the topic I was still not convinced. NIEHS states that “A wide range of substances, both natural and man-made, are thought to cause endocrine disruption, including pharmaceuticals, dioxin and dioxin-like compounds, polychlorinated biphenyls, DDT and other pesticides, and plasticizers such as Bisphenol A.” (NIEHS, 2014)  The word that jumped out to me in this statement was “thought”. Even this organization does not sound like they know for sure. If they are unsure then how are we supposed to know?

I do believe that there is evidence out there suggests there may be some potential endocrine risks from some of these manmade chemicals, but I believe that we are still in the beginning phases of figuring out what exactly those risks are and how much exposure is too much. The part that really bothers me is why we continue to be reactive to the effects of manmade chemicals. Why aren’t these chemicals tested for human and environmental health effects before they are released to the consumer and the environment? This is how we operated in the past it did not work out well for us yet we continue to operate this way. It is not like these chemicals just showed up naturally in the environment; they were created in a lab somewhere. Why isn’t there a more stringent process for testing these chemicals as soon as they are created?  My guess is that money is the key factor in it all. It always is. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I am not sure I like being the guinea pig for big business and politicians.

References:

Easton, T. A. (2009). Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Environmental Issues (15th ed., pp. 309-318). New York: McGraw-Hill.

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. (n.d.). Endocrine Disruptors. Retrieved from http://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/agents/endocrine/

U.S. National Institutes of Health. (n.d.). Search of: NIEHS endocrine disruptor – List Results – ClinicalTrials.gov. Retrieved from http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct/search;jsessionid=A51319A943AC575AF60A7130698FB27D?term=NIEHS++endocrine+disruptor&submit=Search

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