What are Endocrine Disrupting Compounds? And Why You Should Care

Endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs), also known interchangeably as endocrine disrupting chemicals and sometimes endocrine disruptors, have emerged over the last decade or so as an ever present and very concerning issue. Sometimes it’s easy to hear people talk about EDCs and either brush them off as too worried or too hippy, but I think it can also be a difficult topic to fully understand. 

There is a lot that could be said about EDCs and I want to tackle that a little bit today, as simply as possible, to help you understand what this means and why it should be important to you. 

I’m trying to present this topic clearly and simply, but the reality is that it’s complicated stuff. There’s a reason not everyone walks around with a working knowledge of endocrinology. I am nowhere near an expert, but I have educated myself on the topic and continue to do so. There is so much more to the issue than I could currently explain to you. 

But I hope to be able to convey the basics in an understandable way. I believe everyone has a right to this information and that too much of what is available is beyond the reach of the everyday person, or is so simple and not linking to enough research to be fully accurate. I hope to straddle that, though I may not fully hit the mark.

Here’s what to expect from this article:

What are endocrine disrupting compounds?

Varying opinions on the importance of EDCs

How exactly do EDCs impact us?

Key areas of concern related to EDC exposure

What are specific EDCs and what are they in?

What can I do?

Summary / TLDR

What are endocrine disrupting compounds?

Though I’m keeping this post brief and not including a ton of research, when I began my research for this post, I came up with dozens and dozens of sources and articles to sift through. One thing this tells you is that, contrary to what some may say, EDCs are not a fringe issue and it’s not an overblown topic. Some people may take the information out of context, but it is a fact that we are all subject to EDCs on a daily basis and that we are still learning so much about the effects of this. 

First of all, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), a prominent and well-respected research powerhouse, worked together with a variety of true experts in the field of endocrinology to assess and define key characteristics of EDCs in order to assist in continuing research in this area.  

The basic definition they came up with, that has come to be widely used verbatim or very near to it by most major organizations, is this: “Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are exogenous chemicals that interfere with hormone action, thereby increasing the risk of adverse health outcomes, including cancer, reproductive impairment, cognitive deficits and obesity.”

Let’s quickly review the key characteristics, because they explain the nature of these compounds very well. For sake of time, I’m mostly going to list them, with minor explanation where I feel it’s not clear enough to the average joe, but if you want to know more, I highly recommend going and reading the article I just linked where all of this information comes from. (I’ve kept the wording mostly the same but slightly changed some bits to make it more understandable for more people. The meaning is the same. Anything in parenthesis is my explanation.)

Endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) are compounds that 1) interact with or activate hormone receptors, 2) antagonize hormone receptors (inhibit or block natural endocrine functioning), 3) alter hormone receptor expression, 4) alter signal communication and response in hormone-responsive cells, 5) induces epigenetic modifications in hormone-producing or hormone-responsive cells, 6) alters hormone synthesis, 7) alters hormone transport, 8) alters hormone distribution, 9) alters hormone metabolism, and 10) alters fate of hormone-producing or hormone-responsive cells.

Somewhat more simply put, endocrine disrupting compounds are substances that interact with hormone receptors by blocking or somehow changing the way that hormones are processed or produced, thus changing the functioning of hormone-producing and -responsive cells and organs, even so far as to alter DNA expression over the lifecourse and impacting the function and form of hormone-producing and -responsive cells negatively. 

As you can see, this is more than just EDCs sort of mess with you. No, EDCs can change the way your body produces hormones (which regulates most processes) and the expression of your DNA, which impacts basically everything over time, including disease onset. It’s a big deal. What makes this even more salient is that hormones typically work in very small changes, meaning that the body slightly raises or lowers the levels of a hormone to produce a certain effect, thus even small interferences with our hormones are a very big deal.

Varying opinions on the importance of EDCs

I wouldn’t say that any major organization/group of officials think EDCs aren’t important, but there are variances in how salient they find the issue to be, especially in terms of tangible threat to human health. 

For instance, the US EPA states that while endocrine disruptors are certainly a thing and we have identified a few key ones and banned or limited them, there’s not enough evidence to clearly define a list of EDCs, especially because the risk for humans at the current environmental levels has either not shown issues or hasn’t been studied enough. This is one of those things where they’re looking at the existing data and making a decision about whether things like animal research vs. human research as well as effects of varying concentration levels make this a big enough issue. The EPA has decided that while more research is needed, the levels of potential EDCs in food and drinking water have not been adequately demonstrated as harmful. It’s important to note the US EPA is an outlier in their thinking on this. 

In my opinion, and the opinions of many others, including experts, the EPA has really been caught asleep at the wheel when it comes to this topic. When other organizations have recognized the threat EDCs pose to human and environmental health, the EPA has done basically nothing to try to protect Americans from them.

A joint report from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) discuss that, while more research is definitely needed, there is a lot of evidence for a few things: 1) endocrine related disorders and diseases have risen dramatically in the last few decades, 2) birth abnormalities have risen in that time, 3) wildlife populations have seen significant endocrine related negative impacts, and 4) EDCs have been shown to have clear endocrine related effects. All this in combination with the current amount of research on both animals and humans lead them to believe that EDCs are having a significant impact at current environmental levels. 

(This is a great example of how different people can analyze the same data and come up with different conclusions, so I always recommend you seek a variety of sources when researching topics like this.)

One problem with EDC research and determining “safe” thresholds historically has to do with the different nature of EDCs from other toxins and chemicals. Specific toxins, say a neurotoxin, can be tested on animals and extrapolated to humans to say that this level causes no adverse effects and a limit for use can be set based on that. 

As a joint report from The Endocrine Society and IPEN (as well as my other sources) explains, EDCs take effect in small amounts, because of the fact we discussed that hormones control bodily functions with very small changes. Because of this, it’s a little more difficult to use current methods of determining “safe” thresholds for these chemicals or determining the extent of their adverse effects at varying levels. What is clear is that small levels do cause changes, cited by this and basically all the other sources I’ve already mentioned, as well as others. 

Therefore, the report states, it’s important that we come up with new methods for testing the toxicity of endocrine disruptors as well as for determining “safe” thresholds for their use in commercial products.

How exactly do EDCs impact us?

How exactly do EDCs affect us? The easiest way to understand this is to understand what we talked about in the beginning of this post about how the endocrine system and hormone receptors generally function. 

To simply put it again, hormones control basically everything in your body, down to things like breathing and hunger. Hormones also work in small fluctuations, as the body up or down regulates hormones very slightly to produce desired effects. Hormones don’t necessarily act alone (as with breathing, there are obviously other body functions occurring to produce or stop this sensation). Hormone imbalances or lack of hormone activity/production can massively mess with the body’s ability to function. Consider thyroid disorders, which massively affect a number of things from weight gain to heart function to fatigue because of the overactivity of underactivity of hormones the thyroid produces. 

Another major consideration for the impact of EDCs is that there are certain periods of life where EDCs are more detrimental than at other times. These very vulnerable times are mostly related to times of rapid development in our lives, as hormones play such a major part in this development. These times are often called “windows of vulnerability” in the literature.  

The key windows are in utero, the first several years of life, puberty, and the reproductive years. These times are when hormones are the most crucial to regulating all of the changes going on in our bodies and the development of babies. The reproductive years are included less because of health impacts they may have on adults, and more because of the impact on developing babies. Obviously, fertility is an aspect of adult health, so that’s relevant in and of itself, but it’s also relevant in relation to being able to create and carry viable pregnancies and healthy babies.

Damage done by EDCs can affect not just the individual exposed to them, but also their offspring. There’s actually evidence to suggest that EDC damage can affect several generations from the individual originally exposed. And we’re all exposed, so you can see how this can compound, in a way.

So while it’s always important to reduce EDC exposure, it’s especially important to focus on this when trying to conceive, when pregnant, and for parents to focus on this for their children during their early and pubescent years.

Key areas of concern related to EDCs

As in, what negative health outcomes could they cause?

Because hormones control everything, in essence, EDCs can affect… everything? But let’s focus on the major areas of concern with the most research to understand them. I’m going to keep this very brief and I’m not going to cite a ton of sources because I am going to do a post in more depth on this specific aspect of EDCs, where I will link all sorts of research. What I’m saying here can be found in several of the sources I’ve already listed as well as a lot of prominent research that, like I said, I’ll link to more specifically later.

The best research we have right now indicated that exposure to EDCs, especially during windows of vulnerability, can cause neurological and behavioral issues (including diminishing capacity to handle stress), metabolism, fertility, growth and development (both fetal and general child development of multiple areas such as immune system and sexual development), and certain kinds of cancer. 

Some of these may sound kind of odd. How can EDCs impact your ability to handle stress? Well, stress (both physiological and somatic) is massively controlled by hormones. If EDCs are mimicking stress hormones such as cortisol and impeding one’s ability to regulate that and other hormones, than it is easy to see how EDCs would reduce ability to cope with stress. I could pull each of these areas through this logic, and I likely will another day.

Fertility is perhaps one of the most widely researched of these areas of concern, but there is a good amount of research for all of them and the literature is ever growing supporting the need for concern about EDCs.

It’s good to know that not all of these areas have thorough research. There is fantastic preliminary research for all of these areas, with much more research for most and growing all the time. Some issues are more clearly impacted by EDCs, and some have much more work required but appear to be potentially related. I note this because it’s important to understand that we are still beginning to understand the depth and breadth of the impact of EDCs and not everything is certain. 

What are specific EDCs and what are they in?

I’m hardly going to touch on this because I believe it deserves its whole own post. I will get much more into this in the future, but I’ll keep it brief today. 

Endocrine disrupting chemicals come–I’d say almost completely–from industrial manufacturing and agricultural processes. That’s part of the reason that we’re just starting to understand some of the dangers of these chemicals and substances. They’re relatively new in the course of our time here on earth. Especially when you consider the intergenerational impacts of these chemicals, it takes time to see the downsides. We sure are seeing them now though.

EDCs are used as herbicides (atrazine), components of plastics and resins (BPA, phthalates), byproducts of manufacturing processes (dioxins), coatings–think nonstick, paper products, or water/stain proofing (PFAS), flame retardants (polybrominated diphenyl ethers), chemicals otherwise used for industrial purposes (perchlorate), and personal care products (triclosan, phthalates). Phytoestrogens are a plant-based natural EDC found in soy that mimics estrogen. There are some EDCs that are banned now but still exist in large quantities because of their original applications, such as PCBs used to make electrical equipment, lubricants, fluids, and so on. Still other EDCs are no longer in use but still impact us today due to the intergenerational impacts from our grandparents’ exposure to them, such as DES that was given to pregnant women in the mid 20th century. 

There are more than the ones I’ve mentioned here, but these are some of the most common, most dangerous, and most well understood. One thing that sucks about some of these is their continued, widespread use despite knowledge of their detrimental effects, such as atrazine and phthalates

I’ll add that there is some evidence that topical or internal use of lavender and tea tree oil may act as endocrine disruptors, with impacts to breast tissue. I haven’t dug deeply into this yet, but it seems that it might be best to avoid using these on your kids, or using them sparingly and ensuring you use a carrier oil to dilute. This does not apply to using these oils aromatically, which don’t appear to have the same endocrine disrupting effects.

So what can I do?

If this brief explanation feels a bit overwhelming, that’s good in a way, but I’d also encourage you to take a deep breath. There are truly dangerous chemicals all around us. Not in an extremist reaction way, but they’re there. I mean, shoot, if we can get high levels of cadmium in our chocolate because waste disposal processes and general pollution has damaged the soil so much that cocoa trees just suck that much heavy metals up, that should be an indication that there are a lot of issues going on here with the products and materials we use and how we manage them. 

However, as I always say, there’s only so much you can do. Try to minimize your exposure to these things, try to reduce your kids’ exposures to these things, and let the rest go. None of us, no matter how hard we try, will avoid exposure to EDCs. We are all affected by both the EDCs our parents and grandparents were exposed to and those that we are supposed to today. And, given that even small exposures can cause major impacts, the levels at which we are exposed are pretty concerning. 

This is another bit that I believe deserves a more thorough post, so I will get more into ways to reduce EDC exposure in the future, but here are a few easy, basic tips you can try to implement today, or the next time you want a coffee or go to the grocery store. I’m not going to explain them here, you can likely see the links to the list above. I will explain them in a later post. For now, I’ll just list some practical steps. 

1) Reduce your use of plastic, both single and multi-use. 2) Buy organic food. 3) Wash your produce. 4) Let new products air out (mattresses, couches, even newly painted rooms) for at least a couple weeks and at best several months. 5) Be conscious with new product purchases to choose ones without flame retardants. 6) Buy clothes made with natural fibers. 7) Choose “clean” brands for beauty and personal care products. 8) Filter your water.

Now, obviously, it might be overwhelming to tackle all of these at once. If you’re gung-ho, go for it. But typically, these changes can take a while to assimilate. Whatever you can do should benefit your health and the health of your family, both current and future. 

Summary / TLDR

Endocrine disrupting compounds are mostly chemicals and some other organic compounds that interfere with the normal functioning of the endocrine system by blocking, mimicking, or otherwise impacting the regulation and function of hormone-producing and -responsive cells. This can cause negative health outcomes because hormones regulate a number of important functions throughout the body. 

Though there are some entities that downplay the importance of EDCs and do little to reduce our exposure to them, most major organizations and governing bodies agree that it is a very important issue that demands attention. The research on this topic has grown over the last several decades and continues to reveal the detrimental effects of EDCs. 

EDCs are mostly produced by or for industrial manufacturing or agriculture and, though some have been banned or limited, many are still used widely. The impact on human health is very clear for issues like fertility and child development, and the research is growing to show links between EDCs and issues with metabolism, neurobehavioral issues, and some cancers. 

The unfortunate fact of EDCs is that, because of their wide-spread use over the last couple hundred years and currently, as well as their tendency to accumulate in the environment and cause changes to epigenetics, they impact all of us and they are incredibly difficult to get away from. Though it can seem like an impossible task, and you definitely don’t need to pull out your hair over it, it’s a very good idea to work on minimizing your exposure to EDCs. 

To reduce your exposure, you are going to have to make some lifestyle changes, mostly in the realm of purchasing decisions. We cannot avoid all exposure to EDCs. They’re in the soil that feeds our food, in the water and cannot be totally filtered, in the air, and in so many normal, modern products. However, here’s a few things you can do to reduce your exposure: reduce your use of plastic, buy organic food, wash your produce, let new plastic products as well as other high VOC emitters (like paint) air out and “off-gas” before you use them, avoid flame retardants, seek more natural personal care and cosmetic products, and filter your water. 

If you can’t do all of these things, pick one and see if you can slowly add others as you get used to them. I always say I don’t want anyone to freak out over this stuff. Do what you can. At the same time, I would urge you that it is apparently very important that you seek to reduce your EDC exposure, for the sake of your health and the health of your family, both current and future. Isn’t it crazy that we can make decisions that will impact future parts of our family we will never meet?

I hope this review of endocrine disrupting compounds/chemicals helped you to understand this issue better without overwhelming you. As I’ve said a couple times, it’s a little bit of a complicated subject with a lot of information. It can be difficult to explain without a good amount of detail. If you’re interested in more detail than this post had, read this post on the research around how EDCs negatively impact health.