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NI Global Issues for Learners of English > Issues > Pesticides > Interview | Endocrine Disruptors - Facts

What are endocrine disruptors?

Endocrine disruptors are chemicals that cause birth defects, sexual abnormalities, and failure to reproduce properly.

The endocrine glands are important organs in the body, including the testes, the ovaries, the pancreas and the thyroid. These organs make hormones (chemical "messengers") that go through the bloodstream. Endocrine disruptors interfere with these hormones.

They can do this in two ways:

  1. Endocrine disruptors can interfere with the hormones in the body that affect the development of young creatures:
    • they can affect how babies develop in the womb
    • they can affect how babies and young children develop after birth
  2. Endocrine disruptors can also change the way the bodies of adults act:
    • they can make hormones become more or less active
    • the body can mistake the endocrine disruptors for hormone

 

Dioxin is a well-known example of an endocrine disruptor.

 DISRUPT (v) to make something not work properly: An endocrine DISRUPTOR makes the endocrine system not work properly.

DEFECT: (n) a fault, something that is not right

ABNORMALITY: the noun from abnormal = not normal; an abnormality is something that is not as it should be.

REPRODUCE: to create young by making babies or eggs & so on.

The TESTES are the male organs that make sperm as well as male hormones. The OVARIES are the female organs that make eggs as well as female hormones. The PANCREAS produces insulin as well as some products that help digestion. The THYROID produces substances that affect how you develop and behave.

This material was adapted from the article, Crossed bills and broken eggs in the May 2000 issue of the New Internationalist. .

© 2000: the New Internationalist

NI Global Issues for Learners of English > Issues > Pesticides > Interview | Endocrine Disruptors - Facts

Last Modified: 12 July 2000