Endocrine disruptors

Cause of endocrine disruptors

La chemical pollution not only affects the environment and natural ecosystems but also affects humans directly or indirectly. Many of the chemical substances that come in the hygiene products we use can have negative effects on both human health and the environment. These negative effects can come from a direct interaction with our body through the water that goes down the drain of our homes. We can say that by cleaning our body we end up dirtying the environment around us. This chemical contamination can affect endocrine disruptors.

In this article we are going to tell you what endocrine disruptors are and how chemical pollution affects their operation.

Chemical products

Endocrine disruptors

As we mentioned at the beginning, there are many chemicals that we use in household products that have properties that emulate our hormones. By emulating our hormones, a type of contamination can be produced that causes biological dysfunctions. These substances are known as endocrine disruptors or hormone disruptors. These are chemical substances with artificial origin and that have great diversity. They act by accumulating in the human body and alter the functioning of the entire endocrine or hormonal system.

If we are continually incorporating this kind of chemical into our body, we can suffer from health problems such as cancer, obesity, diabetes or reproductive disorders. At the European level, there is no current legislation regulation that prevents the use of hormone disrupting substances in different household chemicals. However, there are some cities such as Germany in which people are encouraged to know the dangers that it can pose to health. These chemicals can be used daily in homes and people are not aware of it.

Studies on endocrine disruptors

pesticides

There are numerous studies that have tried to draw conclusions about endocrine disruptors and their health effects. And is that these endocrine disruptors are commonly used in detergent, plastics, pesticides, cosmetics, food, etc. This means that the main characteristic of these chemical substances is that they do not cause a direct effect. As they are products that are consumed daily or that are used frequently, they cannot affect people's health and the environment immediately. However, they are able to simulate the behavior of animal hormones.

This can lead to a number of long-term health problems. The hormones that we have in our body are a set of vital substances produced by the glands of the endocrine system. These hormones are produced from the hypothalamus, pineal, and reproductive glands. This means that hormones can behave more or less like "keys" that make the biological conditions that we normally live can activate certain receptors that are necessary for a certain biological response.

Unlike natural hormones, endocrine disruptors are totally artificial chemical substances, but they have a composition very similar to that of animal hormones. This means that, once they are incorporated into our body, They can also activate these biological processes as if they were natural hormones. The problem with artificially activating these biological processes is that they can do so under conditions in which are not necessary for the body. Therefore, it can cause alterations that affect people's health.

Danger of endocrine disruptors

pesticide use

The World Society for Endochronology warns of the health dangers of pesticides such as atrazine, plastics that are used in numerous containers, supplements that are used in cosmetic products, products used as retardants and electronic products that these disruptors can have endocrine.

Within the human being's exposure to these hormonal disruptors, we find that women are the most exposed. In part this happens because even more women are exposed to household chores that have to do with household hygiene. This leads to a large number of products containing endocrine disrupting chemicals being used. Another risk factor for women is the frequency with which they consume cosmetic products that are not exempt from these toxic substances. In the long term, overuse and exposure to these chemicals can lead to major health problems.

To all this we add that the hormonal system of women is more complex sensitive. Currently we can add more than 800 chemical substances that are usually used in household or personal hygiene products who have serious suspicions about possible interference with biological hormones. There are also doubts about the possible relationship with the cause of diseases and other health problems as noted above.

Scientific evidence

Scientific evidence tells us that hormonal disruptors have already been warned since 1991. Since then, all the studies that are carried out in this regard they do nothing more than accumulate evidence of the possible affection of these substances to the human being. An example that we can relate to this is the presence of lead in gasoline for cars. Since lead was removed from gasoline in the 90s, it has been seen how it stopped accumulating in human blood as lead decreased in the air. Lead entered our lungs through respiration as it accumulated in the air.

Despite the data provided by the scientific evidence regarding this case, this substance cannot be banned since are brutally influenced by today's powerful chemical industries. Therefore, the only solution we have to reduce the risks caused by endocrine disruptors is the notion of new behavior patterns. For example, we can reduce the use of hygiene products, cosmetics, excess packaging, etc. We must not forget that we also help reduce products that do not become waste and end up polluting the environment.

I hope that with this information you can learn more about endocrine disruptors.


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