Endocrine Disruptors in the Environment

An anonymous reader writes "The World Wildlife Fund has recently published a document calling for action to be taken to reduce chemicals that are considered endocrine disruptors from being used. The background for this comes from a World Health Organization report. Here is the public notice from the WHO. Endocrine Disruptors are chemicals that interfere with the normal functions of the endocrine system and have been linked to lower sperm counts, prostate cancer, breast cancer, weird sexual deformations in some animal species, etc. I had heard one of my teachers talking about this issue back in the early 90's. Seems like people have been aware of this kind of thing for a while. What have you heard about this issue? Where does it rank (if at all) with reference to the political or medical interest/attention it is getting in your area? Will enough people become aware of it to actually make a difference in preventing the use of these chemicals?"

Comments

A Lack of Awareness

[Blind Linux]

While those who feel passionately about environmental issues and wildlife have no doubt been aware of endocrine disruptors and their use, one must realise that the general public has remained largely obivious to their existance, let alone which chemicals are endocrine disruptors.
Teachers are always up to date on these sorts of things as one of their duties is to inform students of the goings-on in the world. The problem is that outside of the schools, this issue gets very little publicity. In fact, Slashdot is the first place I've seen an article about it on. None of the papers in Ottawa seem to have covered it, at least not in the front page/world news area where it should be.
Currently, the political and media interest/attention lies in infighting in the Liberal party (which holds a majority in Canadian parliament), Israel-Palestine and on the US-led war on terrorism. Environmental issues seem to get no coverage. For that reason, unless more media coverage is devoted to this, I'm afraid that it be solved as without awareness, there is nothing we can really do...