I have heard a great deal of disagreement regarding the danger of these compounds. Ill. More Medicine Questions Back to Ask the Experts Certain pesticides, industrial by-products and other compounds can interact with the same receptor molecules inside the body that estrogen can. This question has prompted some very charged reactions from certain environmentalists, who see a serious health threat, and from a number of scientists who question the data on which that assessment is based.
Positive proof demands even more exact parallels with laboratory data.
Consider the example of lung cancer and cigarette smoking, where there is a very strong correlation, and look how long it has taken this association to be universally accepted. Therefore, it may take many years to obtain 'conclusive' evidence that environmental hormone mimics cause health effects, including cancer. In this relatively new area of research, the existing studies find somewhat weaker associations than those between smoking and lung cancer. In addition, the question of the risks from environmental estrogen mimics is a very difficult one, because the biological, epidemiological and exposure issues involved are all extremely complex. Rodents studied in controlled laboratory experiments show a range of detrimental effects.