Diet and Hormone Disrupters in Girls
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HORMONE DISRUPTERS
A Puerto Rican study that may link diet and hormone disrupters in young girls was released in the September, 2000 issue of Environmental Health Perspectives http://ehis.niehs.nih.gov/. Carlos J. Bourdony, a pediatric endocrinologist at San Juan City Hospital, and colleagues at the University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, report data linking a suspected group of hormone disrupters, known as phthalates, with the development of breasts in Puerto Rican infant girls. Phthalates are chemicals that can mimic or alter activity of sex hormones in animals. Phthalates are used in the manufacture of many products, including, plastics,lubricants, and solvents.
For more than 2 decades, Puerto Rico has hosted an inexplicable epidemic of premature breast development, or thelarche. The incidence there of at least 7 or 8 per 1,000 girls is the highest known. Most of the affected girls begin developing breasts between the ages of 6 and 24 months.
In the study sixty-eight percent of a group of 41 Puerto Rican girls with thelarche had detectable phthalates in their blood, compared with 17 percent of the girls developing normally. In
five of the normal girls whose blood contained the most commonly used phthalate, di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate or DEHP, its concentration averaged 70 parts per billion but among the girls with premature breast development and detectable DHEP, the concentration averaged 450 ppb.
The diet-phthalate link is suspected because a recent Danish study, led by Jens H. Peters, found phthalates in baby food and formulas. Fetal exposure is also possible. Women of childbearing age had higher phthalate exposures than any other group in a recent survey, according to John W. Brock of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Among the women, the biggest contributor of di-ethyl phthalate is a cologne solvent.
Other suspected hormone disrupting chemicals, or environmental estrogens as they are sometimes called, include pesticides such as DDT, lindane and vinclozolin and industrial chemicals such as phthalates, bisphenol A, dioxin, and alkylphenols. The pesticides can be found in residues on food, phthalates are in many PVC plastics and bisphenol A is present in the linings of many food cans. More info on hormone disrupters at: http://website.lineone.net/~mwarhurst/.
SOURCE: Janet Raloff, Girls may face risks from phthalates, SCIENCE NEWS http://www.sciencenews.org/, Sept. 9, 2000.
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