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2 results

  • 9 - Impacts of hormone-disrupting chemicals on wildlife

  • Edited by Norman Maclean, University of Southampton
  • Book:
    Silent Summer
    Published online:
    05 August 2012
    Print publication:
    20 May 2010, pp 125-140

  • Summary

    Summary

    Wildlife in Britain and Ireland has been shown to be adversely affected by exposure to chemicals that alter the balance of hormones in the body. Effects in wildlife are predominantly, but not exclusively, found in species living in and/or closely associated with the aquatic environment. The best-known examples of this so-called phenomenon of endocrine disruption in British and Irish wildlife include eggshell thinning in birds of prey, imposex in marine snails, where male sex organs grow in females, and alteration of sexual development in fish, including intersex where both male and female sex tissues are contained within an individual that is normally single sexed. Some of these effects have resulted in population-level consequences and in marine snails they have even caused localised population extinctions. The causative chemicals of endocrine disruption in wildlife are wide ranging and they include natural and synthetic steroids, pesticides and a variety of industrial chemicals. Adding to the complexity of the problem, most wildlife populations are exposed to mixtures of these hormone-disrupting chemicals (HDCs) that can accumulate in their bodies and are additive in their effects in the body. Such exposures are well illustrated in seals and otters that have been shown to contain high body concentrations of organochlorines, polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs, used as flame retardants) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in their fatty tissues, all of which disrupt how hormones work. […]

  • Oestrogenic substances in the aquatic environment and their potential impact on animals, particularly fish

  • Edited by E. W. Taylor, University of Birmingham
  • Book:
    Toxicology of Aquatic Pollution
    Published online:
    20 May 2010
    Print publication:
    29 March 1996, pp 205-224

  • Summary

    Introduction

    In this review we summarize what is known presently about which oestrogenic substances are present in the aquatic environment, at what concentrations they are present, and then discuss what effects these oestrogenic substances might have on aquatic organisms. By ‘oestrogenic substances’ we mean chemicals that have been shown to mimic the physiological effects of true oestrogens such as 17β-oestradiol (the major physiologically active oestrogen in all classes of vertebrates). Oestradiol is quite a small molecule; its molecular weight is 272 and it is composed of four aromatic rings (Fig. 1). Likewise, chemicals which mimic the effects of oestradiol are often small, and their structures are often based around one or more aromatic rings (Fig. 1 for examples). However, not all oestrogenic substances have structures which superficially resemble that of oestradiol; kepone, for example, does not have a structure which would in any way suggest that it might act as an oestrogen (Fig. 1). Because chemicals which do not resemble oestradiol can function as oestrogens, it has not been possible to predict, based on knowledge of their structures, which chemicals might be oestrogenic; hence, the oestrogenic activity of chemicals has usually been discovered only when effects are noted, by which time the chemical might be in widespread use (DDT provides a good example here). Further, it is suggested from recent findings (see later section on oestrogenic effects on aquatic organisms) that there are chemicals already in widespread use, and therefore present in most (if not all) environments, which are not recognized presently to be oestrogenic, but which might yet turn out to be so.