The endocrine system is essentially the system through which our glands, lymph nodes, gonads, pancreas, and other hormonal organs operate. The instructions given by our endocrine system through different hormones cause many of the fundamental processes that keep us alive.
Endocrine disruptors are chemicals that can alter the endocrine processes by simulating the chemical structure of a hormone or acting in a similar manner when processed through the body. Endocrine disruptors exist in nature, but the most toxic ones have been synthesized by man.
Understand that a small change in our endocrine system can have devastating long term effects on our emotional and physical health. So, this understood, endocrine disruptors must exist in small quantities in very few highly dangerous industrial conditions, right?
Wrong. The sad truth is that many endocrine disruptors exist in our everyday lives in the form of pesticides, dental sealants, perfumes, soaps, and common disposable plastics such as PVC and polyethylene.
Concentrations of ED's are magnified as they go through the process of bioaccumulation up the food chain. If a plankton were to consume a small amount of an ED, and then a small aquatic organism ate that plankton, and then a small fish ate that organism, and then a large fish or a bird ate that organism, the animal at the top of this food chain would have a highly toxic amount of ED's in their prey, so much so that the result could have significant developmental effects, sickness, or even death.
In a strange twist on bioaccumulation, Capt. Charles Moore of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation skimmed the surface of the North Pacific Gyre using a fine-mesh net device over an area of more than 100 kilometers. He found six times more plastic by weight than naturally occurring zooplankton. Other researchers found that the plastic bits absorb and concentrate toxins such as PCB and DDE up to a million times their levels in ambient seawater. Birds and fish are ingesting the plastic because they mistake for zooplankton. Because the plastic is a PCB/DDE "magnet," the animals consuming it are getting massive doses of Eds.
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